Medic Lance
by TheFullmetalBitch
Summary: This is a multi-chapter story based on my headcanon that Lance is the unofficial team medic. This is my second Voltron story so please give it a shot and let me know what you think!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1- Coran**

Soon after they had formed Voltron for the very first time, Allura and Shiro had decided that they would all help Coran out with the upkeep of the Castle-ship, keeping it functioning and clean. Coran had argued, saying he was perfectly capable of keeping the Castle in tip-top shape by himself. His argument was that it was unfair to ask the humans to help with chores while they were busy training and defending the universe. Lance had been the one to ask him how many people it used to take to keep the Castle in perfect condition.

When Coran had answered with a number higher than anyone, except maybe Allura, had expected, Shiro had asked how Coran was expected to do everything and still have time to sleep and help them. The orange-haired alien hadn't been able to answer. Allura had asked him to make a list of all of the jobs that had to be done daily, weekly and monthly (or the Altean equivalent of those times) so they could figure out which jobs the Paladins could help with. A roster was made and sent to each person's personal tablet with the roster sending them an alert anytime it changed.

Soon there was a routine in place and everyone could tell Coran was grateful for the help. Of course, there were times when the roster had to be changed. Coran refused to let them do anything the day after a battle and if someone had been in a healing pod, Coran wouldn't let them do anything until he was sure they could handle it. It had driven Lance crazy after the explosion in the crystal room. Coran had made him rest for three days after he got out of the pod and by the time a week had passed, he still wasn't letting Lance do anything. The Cuban boy had gone to the Princess to see if she could anything about it. Allura had been surprised Coran was still not letting Lance do anything and promised she'd speak to him when she could. She'd found Lance the next day and told him that Coran had admitted to her that he felt guilty over how badly injured Lance had gotten trying to protect him from the explosion. Lance had thanked her and went off to find Coran.

He found the Altean tidying one of the numerous rooms Lance still had yet to explore in the Castle. He wasn't sure what this one was used for but it was massive and there were all sorts of fascinating things on the shelves. He started looking at everything, trying to figure out their purpose and was startled by Coran coming up next to him. Lance had actually forgotten why he was in this room.

"Number 3!" Coran had greeted him upon realising he was in the room. "Do you need something, my boy?"

"Coran, why are you not letting me help with stuff around here? I swear, I'm perfectly fine! All healed up and everything!" Lance asked and watched Coran's expression turn guilty.

"I know you are, Lance," he almost whispered and Lance remembered what Allura had told him. He placed a hand on Coran's shoulder.

"You know I don't blame you for what happened to me, right?" He asked once they locked eyes and Coran didn't have to say anything for Lance to know the answer. "Coran, me getting hurt is not your fault. I'd do it all over again if I had to! I don't know if you're not letting me help around here because you think I'm still hurt or because you feel guilty but either way, you're wrong and I'd love to start helping out again because I'm getting really, really bored and that's not a good thing for me and anyone around me. I've started plotting pranks to pull on everyone!" He told him, dramatically throwing his hands up in the air. The act made Coran chuckle slightly.

"I'm sorry, Lance. I know it's silly but I just didn't want to see you hurt because of me again," Coran admitted. "I just figured that there would be no way for you to get hurt because of me if I didn't ask you to do any chores, " the orange-haired alien admitted. Lance's features softened.

"I get it, Coran, but I want to help out around here. It's not fair to everyone else and it's not fair to you if I keep missing out on my chores. And if I get hurt doing them, it's not on you. Just like me getting hurt before isn't," Lance added sternly. "So can I start helping out again? 'Cuz if not, I'll probably end up being killed by Keith when I add something that looks like hair dye to his shampoo bottle if I don't get to help." Coran had thrown his head back and laughed.

"We certainly can't have that, my boy!" He grinned as he threw an arm around Lance's shoulders and led him to where he had been working. "Why don't you help me out with this?" He said, handing Lance a rag that the teenager took from him. They spent the afternoon dusting the shelves off while Coran taught Lance the names of some of the objects. Coran had been touched when Lance asked him if he could teach him Altean and his heart swelled with warmth at the unrestrained happiness in the boy's smile when he said he would be happy too.

* * *

That was a couple of months and now it was Lance's day off and the Blue Paladin was looking for his favourite Space Uncle. He often sought Coran out on his days off so he could help out more and keep getting Altean lessons. Coran had been intrigued when Lance told him Earth had several languages and had acted like an excitable child when Lance had spoken Spanish one time so now their lessons were half-Altean and half-Spanish.

He frowned when he'd visited every spot listed on Coran's to-do list for the day and he still hadn't found him. It was not like the man to swap things on his list and not update his own roster. He always did so just in case someone needed to track him down for something. Lance moved down another hallway, looking in each room as he passed them. He had just walked past the medical bay when a flash of orange had caught his eye. He doubled back and saw Coran standing with his hands behind his back next to a tray filled with medical supplies, an opened roll of bandage, and a completely unconvincing 'I wasn't doing anything' look on his face.

"Whatchu doin', Coran, my man?" Lance asked, quirked brow, as he stepped into the room.

"Nothing much, my boy! Just doing inventory! Yup, that's all I'm doing! Just making sure we've got everything!" Coran told him and Lance's brow nearly reached his hairline in disbelief.

"Would you like time to think of a different lie? Inventory was done in here by Shiro two days ago," Lance pointed out and Coran deflated. Even his moustache drooped.

"I hurt my wrist. Nothing serious! Don't worry!" Coran added seeing Lance's body shift in concern. "I don't need a pod but I need to wrap it for a couple of quintents," he told him and Lance sighed before gesturing for Coran to hold his hands out. The wrist Coran had hurt was haphazardly wrapped and Lance unravelled the bandage.

"How about you let me wrap this then you can teach me what everything in here does, just in case?" Lance offered as he re-rolled the barely used bandage so he could apply it to Coran's wrist properly.

"That would be appreciated, my boy," Coran said softly as he watched Lance expertly wrap his hand up. The bandage was tight but didn't restrict his finger movements too much and it was taped securely so it wouldn't come undone easily. "Thank you."

"It's no worries," Lance assured him before picking up a random bottle of pink spray. "Now, what does this do?" He asked, eyes alight in a way that Coran knew meant he was really excited about what he was doing.

"That, my boy, is a spray designed to help with any bruising," he answered and Lance looked at it, fascinated. He asked a few questions before they moved on to the next medical item that caught the Cuban's eye. They spent the rest of the day in the medical bay until Lance had memorised everything. Coran tested him a few times and both of them had smiled proudly when Lance was able to grab anything Coran asked for on the first try. Coran couldn't help but feel proud of Lance.

Lance and Coran both startled when the alarm to indicate dinner sounded. They'd completely lost track of time in the med bay, both too absorbed in what they were doing to pay much attention to the time. They both headed to the kitchens together; Lance now asking about whether there were first aid kits in the Lions and what they held. Coran was happy to go into details since there were things in the kit that weren't strictly for medical uses.

"Lance?" Coran asked when the Cuban had run out of questions. The brunette hummed in response. "Why did you want to know about the uses of each medical item?"

"Well, just in case really," Lance said before realising that wasn't really an answer. "I mean, there'll probably be times where one of us gets hurts like you did and you'll be in the middle of something important or something so I figured that having someone else on this ship knowing basic first aid wouldn't be a bad idea." Lance shrugged nonchalantly. "Maybe then I'd be a bit more useful to the team," Lance whispered, likely not meaning to be loud enough for Coran to hear him.

"My boy, you are very useful to our little team. I couldn't imagine anyone better suited to piloting Blue than you," Coran told Lance, his voice completely serious. Lance's cheeks flushed slightly but he bumped his shoulder against Coran's.

"Thanks, Coran," he said, voice slightly watery. He cleared his throat before shaking his head and breaking out his usual cocky attitude. "As much as I love this mushy stuff, I'm starved! Let's go find out what wonderous creation my Hunky-Bear has cooked up for us!" Coran laughed as Lance started bouncing slightly in his excitement.

"Yes, we mustn't keep Number 2 waiting," he grinned as he followed Lance once more. He was still concerned about what Lance had said but he vowed to himself that he would take every opportunity presented to show him how worthy he was to be here.

 **A/N - New story for y'all! I've written out most chapters and, as you can probably guess from the summary and this chapter, there'll be a chapter for each character. Though I'll probably split Lance's one into two cuz I think it's a bit long XD None of this story will be fully compliant with canon, though I've based all chapters before the s2 finale. Each chapter will be various lengths as well. I'll be updating this story every Thursday/Friday. Please let me know what you think to this chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 - Hunk**

One of Hunk's all-time favourite things to do in the whole universe (he could literally mean that now) was cooking. Didn't matter if he was making breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert or snacks, he loved doing it. He knew he was a good cook but it still made him warm with joy when he saw someone eating his food and completely enjoying it. It took him sitting through two weeks of Coran's 'cooking' and space goo before he started rifling through the food they had been gifted from planets they had saved and experimenting. Lance was excited to see him cooking again and Pidge wasn't as good at hiding her excitement as she thought. Shiro, Keith and the Alteans had never sampled his food on Earth so they didn't really know what to expect.

Keith had made an offhand comment about how stupid Lance was acting over food and Lance had told him to wait until he'd tried Hunk's cooking before judging his excitement. Keith had rolled his eyes and went to argue but Lance had turned his focus completely back on Hunk, ignoring his 'rival' completely while he helped Hunk experiment. Lance mainly helped by being a guinea pig and test tasting Hunk's creations. Hunk always appreciated the helpful comments and critiques Lance gave. Hunk could always count on Lance being completely honest about his cooking. As time in the Castle wore on, Lance was able to make suggestions about what to add once he'd memorised most of what the alien food resembled in Earth terms. After Hunk's first successful creation for dinner, Keith had admitted he could see what all the fuss was about and the proud and smug grin Lance had given Hunk had warmed the Yellow Paladin from his head to his toes.

More time had passed and Hunk had suddenly realised just how much he had changed from when they'd first arrived in Blue. Before that, he could barely stomach being in a spaceship and he had rarely cooked or baked while they were at the Garrison, too tired from what Iverson had put them through each day. Now, he was flying Yellow every chance he could and was in kitchen as often as possible. The only thing that could make him happier is if his family were there or he could just contact them. He didn't let his thoughts dwell on that too much. Instead of giving into the homesickness he could feel trying to latch onto him, he did what he always did when he was sad; he baked.

Heading for the kitchen, he decided on making peanut butter cookies. Pidge had been so ecstatic when he'd discovered how to make something that tasted almost exactly like real peanut butter, even though it was purple, and had been beside herself when he made his first successful batch of peanut butter cookies. These days he knew to make two batches; one for Pidge and one for everyone else to share. He hummed as he worked and soon enough, the cookies were in the space oven and all he could do was wait. Glancing at the clock in the room, Hunk figured he might as well start prepping dinner while he was waiting.

He'd start started pulling out what he'd need when Lance made an appearance. Hunk gave his friend a happy smile. Lance didn't join him all the time in the kitchen these days. He was busy helping Coran out with chores or annoying Pidge or getting some extra training in. Hunk didn't mind that he was doing other stuff but he did miss his best friend's attempts to help him cook and honest opinions.

"Peanut butter cookies?" Lance asked as he sniffed the air and Hunk chuckled.

"In the oven," he told him and Lance gave him a sunny smile before sitting up on the counter, close enough to steal bits of food but far enough away that he wasn't in the road.

"Whatcha making us for dinner, Hunkalicious?" He asked as he snagged some leftover cookie batter.

"Space lasagne," Hunk told him, shoving the cookie dough bowl at him so he didn't have to keep reaching over him to pick at the leftovers. Lance gave a squeal of delight.

"This is why you're my favourite brother!" Lance told him and Hunk laughed.

"Don't you have enough siblings, Lance?" He chuckled and Lance joined in on the laughter.

"Nope. Besides, my mamá basically adopted you, remember? So you are my brother!" Lance reminded him, pushing his shoulder gently and Hunk grinned at the memory of meeting Mrs McClain for the first time. It had taken all of ten minutes for her to declare him family.

"Well, my mums adopted you too, remember?" Hunk reminded him and Lance laughed out loud again.

"Yeah. It took them, what? two minutes to declare me far too skinny and start piling food in front of me quicker than I could eat it?" Lance wiped a few tears that had squeezed through from his laughter.

"Yeah that sounds about - ouch!" Hunk yelped, dropping his knife and clutching his palm as blood welled and started leaking onto the cutting board. Lance was already off the counter and leading him over to the sink.

"Here, let me look," he said, prying Hunk's uninjured hand away from the cut and running it under cool water. Once most of the blood was gone, Lance turned the water off. Blood immediately started pooling again but Lance had seen enough of the injury to know what he was dealing with. He grabbed a clean Altean tea-towel and carefully wrapped it around Hunk's palm. "Come on, let's go to the med bay. It's not too bad so it should be a quick fix." He gave him a reassuring smile before leading him firmly by the elbow.

Hunk tried not to stare at the blood he had dripped on the benchtop, cutting board or floor as he followed Lance's lead out of the kitchen. He may be over his motion sickness but blood still made him feel faint sometimes. Lance never let go of him and he spent the walk listening to Lance's reassurances that the cut wasn't even bad and that he'd have him patched up in no time. Once they got to the med bay, Lance sat him down on one of the beds there before rifling through drawers and grabbing specific things.

"Okay, first off, let's see that cut again," Lance requested, waiting for Hunk to let go of the towel. Once he did, he gently peeled the fabric back and used a clean part to dab the blood away again. Hunk had been keeping his gaze firmly away from his hand but had sucked up the courage to glance at it by the time Lance had turned back to grab something. Despite the blood, the cut didn't look too bad. He heaved a sigh of relief. "I told you it wasn't bad, dude," Lance chuckled, having heard the sigh.

"Yeah, you did." Hunk managed a weak smile back at him and watched as Lance dipped some blue liquid onto something like a paper towel? Hunk shook his head. Alien medicine was weird.

"Okay, not gonna lie. This will probably sting like a _p_ _endeja_." Hunk laughed at Lance's 'censoring'. Shiro had made it clear he disapproved of vulgar language, especially around Pidge. Lance, Hunk and Pidge thought it was hilarious since Pidge was the one who swore the most out of everyone. Since Shiro had made that clear, Lance had been swearing in his native tongue, something Hunk had immediately picked on and had only taken Pidge a few days to realise and now she was mimicking Lance. Lance though it was hilarious because sometimes she mispronounced a word and it ended up meaning something entirely different. A sudden sting brought Hunk back to the present with a sharp inhale. " _Lo siento_ ," he mumbled as he held his hand a little tighter to stop him pulling away.

"It's not your fault, Lance," Hunk told him with a little huff. Lance flashed him an apologetic smile before picking up a spray. "What's that?" Hunk asked curiously, side-eyeing the green liquid.

"This? Oh, it's supposed to, like, numb your hand. I haven't tried it yet so I don't know how well it works," Lance said before spraying it directly onto his palm. Hunk twitched at the feel of the liquid but, sure enough, felt the sting of the cut disappear.

"Well, it works," Hunk told him and Lance looked relieved.

"Oh good. That'll come in handy," he said, replacing the bottle on the table and picking up a jar with something that looked like paw-paw ointment. Lance saw Hunk looking. "This is supposed to help quicken the healing process. Kinda like super glue and stiches mixed into one," Lance told him as he dipped one finger into the jar and carefully smeared the glob onto the cut. Hunk didn't feel any sort of discomfort or pain as he did so.

"Hey, where'd you learn what these do, by the way?" Hunk asked as Lance wiped his hand on a paper towel.

"Oh, Coran taught me. Figured it'd be handy to know., Lance said with a casual shrug. "Right, let's bandage this puppy up and you'll be back to creating feasts fit for royalty in no time!" Lance enthused, placing some gauze on the cut and wrapping a bandage snuggly over the top. "Leave that on overnight. The cut should be alright in the morning. Come find me if you're not sure," Lance said, patting his arm gently. Hunk wrapped him in a big bear hug.

"Thanks Lance," he mumbled into his hair and grinned when he felt Lance hug him back just as tight.

"Anything for my Hunky-Monkey." Lance grinned into his neck before pushing back slightly. "Right, give me a couple of minutes to clean this up and then I'll clean the kitchen up of blood," Lance said, heading for the tray of things he used and started packing them away.

"Lance, you don't have to do that. I can clean it up." Hunk frowned as he tried to help but his hand was batted away.

"Don't worry about it. I know you're still a bit squeamish around it. It's no hassle," Lance said once he packed the last of it away and headed for the kitchen. Hunk still followed him but if he was being honest, the thought of cleaning his own blood up was making his stomach churn a tiny bit. "Dude, I can hear you struggling not to barf over it. I'll clean it up, man," Lance said, stopping just before the doorway and placing a hand on Hunk's chest to stop him. Hunk warred with himself but ultimately gave Lance a small nod. The Cuban petted his cheek before heading into the kitchen.

Hunk could hear Lance running the water and walking around a bit. He hated himself for letting Lance clean up his mess. He was a Paladin of Voltron! He should be able to handle a little bit of blood by now. He listened to Lance move about for a couple more minutes before the water was switched off and Hunk thought he heard his oven door opening and closing again before Lance gave him the all clear. He walked around the corner and spotted what Lance had placed on the counter.

"The cookies!" Hunk had literally forgotten about them completely. From the looks of them, Lance had pulled them out in the nick of time. A glance around the kitchen resulted in no signs of what had happened. Even the knife he'd been using was clean. "Thank you, _hermano_ ," Hunk whispered as he pulled Lance in for another hug.

"Aww, Hunk! You know what you calling me that does to me!" Lance whined in his ear. Hunk let out a breathy chuckle. Neither moved out of the hug for a little while and Hunk had let Lance be the one to pull away first.

"How about you stay and help me finish up dinner?" Hunk asked and Lance grinned at the offer.

"Then we gotta have some tunes!" Lance whipped out his phone and pulled up his music before letting his selected playlist blare as loud as possible. Hunk laughed as the first song up was sung by Shakira and he watched Lance as he started bopping around in time to the music. Hunk caved a few moments later and joined him in his dancing.

Being in the kitchen helped dampen the feeling of homesickness but dancing in the kitchen with best friend made the feeling disappear entirely.

A/N - Here's Hunk's chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Please let me know what you thought! Here are the spanish translations. If one of them is wrong, please tell me. I used google translate for this so it might not be accurate! Thank you for reading this! *minor edit to correct a misused word*

 _pendeja_ \- bitch

 _lo_ _siento_ \- I'm sorry

 _hermano_ \- brother


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 - Pidge**

Lance was more tired than he could ever remember being, including the week he spent studying for finals where he'd only gotten a few hours' sleep in total. They were in a highly inhabited part of space and the Galra had decided to hit every planet they could. The amount of distress signals and calls for aid from the numerous planets had nearly overwhelmed everyone. Voltron had been formed time and time again. Any time the team wasn't fighting, they were getting whatever rest they could between calls. Even Keith had stopped training in between calls after he zoned out in Red and nearly got hit by an ion cannon. Lance and Blue had made it just in the nick of time to push them out of the way before diving to avoid the shot themselves.

Lance could see the exhaustion on everyone's face as he entered the dining room for a space goo dinner. Hunk served it up regrettably but no one let him apologise for the lack of proper space food more than once. Lance had taken him aside and said that once this was all over and this section of space had been cleared of Galra, he'd help Hunk make the biggest feast they could. After getting some well-deserved rest, of course. Hunk had teared up and nearly hugged him to death.

It had taken nearly two space weeks to finally be down to the last battle and of course a Robeast had been released onto the planet they were trying to defend. The creature resembled a slug with arms all down its side and they'd discovered pretty quickly that it oozed acid and could throw it at them too. The only upside to this creation was that it was slow-moving like a slug as well. But that was the only bit of good luck. The druids had made this creature smart. It had good reflexes to avoid shots or make sure it was hit somewhere ineffective and could aim nearly as well as Lance himself. It was Pidge who had first noticed it.

"Is it just me or is that creature focusing on Lance more than the rest of us?" She asked after Lance had been forced into a steep climb to avoid another glob of acid. Everyone had paused for a moment as realisation set in.

"Why?" Shiro had been the one to ask, firing a shot that the creature that did nothing. A lightbulb went off in Lance's head and he groaned at how long it had taken him to think of this. "Lance?" The Black Paladin asked.

"Blue's ice powers. They could freeze it," Lance said, sitting up in the cockpit a little straighter. He looked at the slug strategically. "Hunk, use Yellow like you did on that acid planet and get in front of me. Get me in as close as possible to that Robeast. Everyone else, cover Hunk," he ordered and was little surprised no one said anything. They just did as he asked them. Yellow bulked out and moved in front of Blue.

"I got you, bud." Hunk said over the line and together they headed straight for the Robeast. The other three did their jobs well. Nothing hit Hunk or Lance and soon Hunk's voice came on over the comm's. "Get ready, Lance!"

"We got this! Get clear!" Lance yelled to everyone as Blue let loose a roar. Yellow went into a steep climb and the Robeast was right there in front of Lance and Blue. "Let's do this, Blue!" Lance said as he activated Blue's freeze ray. Blue opened her mechanical jaw and fired. The effect was immediate. The slug's skin froze instantaneously and the rest of it started thrashing to get away. Lance didn't let it. He fired a continuous beam at the monster, moving Blue to the side so they froze every inch of it. He could hear Pidge and Hunk cheering as he moved to freeze the last of it.

"LANCE! LOOK OUT!" The warning came a fraction too late as the slug used its last free arm to knock Blue down. The Blue Lion crashed, gouging a deep ditch into the planet's surface as it slid to a stop. Lance let out a groan of pain before getting onto the comms.

"Stay back. We're finishing this," he said and ignored the protests. "Come on, beautiful girl. Let's show that Robeast what happens when you go up against the Blue Lion!" Blue climbed to her feet and roared a challenge to the slug before Lance got her in the air once more. Firing up the freeze ray once again, they took out the last arm and the rest of the slug in no time. "Keith, use Red. Blow it sky-high," Lance said, pulling Blue back, letting the Red Paladin take centre stage. Red roared as she passed them and Keith positioned her where she was needed before firing a single shot. The Robeast exploded into little pieces and everyone cheered as chunks of acidic slug rained down on them.

"Lance, are you okay?" Shiro asked, coming up on the video link. Lance flashed him a grin.

"A-Okay, bossman! Blue's a little banged up. I'm getting a couple of error messages on screen but she's telling me she's fine. Just a couple of non-essential systems that need to be recalibrated when we get back to the hangar," Lance reported as he fiddled with the console, checking Blue's systems. Blue was in his head reassuring him that she was alright.

"Paladins, good job. Planet Angostia has been liberated." Allura's tired voice came over their comm's. "Please report back to your hangars." The five Paladins immediately did as they were told. Pidge replaced Shiro on Lance's video link.

"Hey, do you want a hand with Blue when we land? All of my projects need more time to finish what they're doing before I can go back to them," she offered.

"Aww, _gracias_ , Pidgey!" Lance pretended to wipe a fake tear away and Pidge rolled her eyes, muttered something about him being dramatic before ending the video link. Blue landed in her hangar a touch less gracefully than she would've ordinarily done. Lance narrowed his eyes at that before calling all her error messages up for Pidge to access when she got her gremlin butt into Blue's hangar. He heard Blue's hangar door open up and he left the cockpit with a smile. "Damn, that was quick even for you, _Chica_ \- oh, hey Shiro." He was a little surprised to see Black's pilot in Blue's hangar. Shiro very rarely came down here, as far as Lance knew anyway.

"Hey, Lance. Just checking to see how you are," Shiro said and Lance frowned in confusion. Shiro never came to check up on him personally.

"Really?" He asked as Blue closed her jaws behind him. "Well, both of us are fine. Like I said, Blue's just got some of her minor systems down or malfunctioning. Pidge said she'd give me a hand fixing them," Lance told him, removing his helmet and putting it on a nearby bench before running a hand through his hair to try and rid himself of the helmet hair he just knew he had. He felt Blue's amusement through their bond and he stuck his tongue out at her.

"Lance," Shiro said and Lance startled a little. He'd kinda forgotten he was there. "Are _you_ alright? Blue took a harsh hit out there today." Lance was already dismissing his concern.

"I'm _fine_ , Shiro. Sheesh, what's with you today?" He asked before he could stop himself. Now it was Shiro's turn to frown in confusion.

"What do you mean, Lance?" He asked and the Blue Paladin huffed softly.

"You don't come down to Blue's hangar and you never come looking for me after a rough battle to see if I'm okay. The only time you ask me twice if I'm alright after one battle is if I've just come out of a healing pod." The 'again' didn't need to be said. Lance was kind of the record holder for the amount of times he's ended up in a pod. Shiro opened his mouth to argue because surely Lance was wrong but the sound of Blue's hangar door opening had them both looking to see who'd entered. "PIDGEON!" Lance hollered, causing both the Green and Black Paladins to jump slightly. Lance bounded over to Pidge and swept her and her armful of tech up into one big hug.

"Argh, Lance! Get off me, you big doof!" Pidge said as she tried to scramble out of his grip without dropping anything. Shiro decided to leave, promising himself he'd talk to Lance about this later. "What'd Shiro want?" Pidge asked once the door had shut behind Shiro and she'd escaped from Lance.

"Actually, he came to see if I was hurt after the battle," Lance said, still mystified about that. He shook his head clear of those thoughts. "So what can Lancey-Lance help you with?" He asked, flashing her his usual grin and Pidge rolled her eyes.

"Can you ask Blue to let me in? I need to know what error messages have popped up." Lance didn't bother asking, just shot Blue a 'please?' and she sighed before lowering her ramp.

"Thank you, gorgeous girl." Lance said, petting her as he led Pidge inside to the cockpit. He felt Blue's love in his mind and grinned shamelessly. "Okay, have at it, Techno Princess," he said, bowing with a flourish as Pidge made her way past him. Pidge made sure to hit his shoulder as she passed him. But lightly 'cuz she was nice like that.

* * *

Pidge spent the next ten minutes examining each and every error code she was presented with. Lance watched in fascination as she did so, sorting them into piles of her choosing and tapping away at her laptop. She eventually crawled under Blue's console and pulled a few wires out before working her magic. Blue assured Lance Pidge was being nice and gentle and Lance had laughed silently. He forgot his Lion was privy to his feelings. Pidge finally emerged from the console.

"Okay, I'm done in here. I have to fix one more thing but I can't access it from here. The place that's damaged is basically in between her eyes," Pidge explained and Lance nodded. They headed out of Blue's cockpit and she closed up behind them before laying her head on the ground for easier access.

"Okay, I'll give you a boost up. You ready?" Lance said as he knitted his hands together to form a step for Pidge. She put her laptop on the ground next to her tool kit before facing Lance. Nodding, she placed one foot on his hands and both hands on his shoulders. He gently bounced her once, twice, three times before boosting her up all the way. Her hands left his shoulders to grab onto Blue's nose before she hoisted herself the rest of her way up onto Blue's muzzle. "You good?" Lance called.

"Yup. Pass me my toolkit," Pidge ordered and Lance went to do as she said before he realised there was a slight problem with that. Pidge would have to basically hang off Blue with her feet to grab the toolkit. Telling Pidge to hold up, he looked around before spotting a spool of rope. He grinned as he snatched it up and tied it carefully around the tools.

"Pidge, catch!" Lance called and threw the other end of the rope up to the Green Paladin after a moment to let Pidge prepare herself to actually catch the rope.

"Got it," she said as she started hoisting her tools up to her. Lance sat down and leaned up against Blue's muzzle while he listened to Pidge tinkering around. He passed the time talking to Blue and exchanging snarky comments with Pidge. Half an hour later, Lance heard Pidge stop working. "Lance, check my laptop, would ya?" She called down to the Blue Paladin.

"Righto. What am I looking for?" Lance asked once he was crouched in front of the laptop. The urge to mess with her computer was nearly overwhelming but Lance managed to stop himself. He didn't feel like being killed by an angry gremlin today. He felt Blue's amusement through their bond.

"Just see if there's any red parts on the screen still," she said and Lance gave the screen a once over before giving her the answer she wanted.

"Nope. There's just green." She let out a whoop of joy and Lance cracked a grin at her antics.

"Yes! Blue's all fixed and completely operat-" Pidge cut herself of with a gasp and short yell of surprise and fear. Lance turned back around just in time to see her hit Blue's hangar floor. Hard.

"Pidge!" He shouted as he ran back to her. He could feel Blue's worry and another presence in his mind. It took a moment to place. Green. Lance slid to his knees once he reached her. "Pidge? Are you okay?" He asked, giving her a visual once over. There wasn't any blood and none of her bones looked broken. Finally, her honey eyes blinked open and Lance let out a massive sigh of relief.

"Lance?" She asked as she carefully sat up, Lance's hands hovering over her just in case. "What happened?" Lance gave a semi-hysterical chuckle.

"You fell off Blue," he told her and her eyes widened as she remembered.

"Oh, yeah. My foot got tangled in the rope. Must've lost my balance." She grimaced at her clumsiness before trying to stand. Except she immediately went back down when pain sparked up her leg.

"You okay?" Lance asked, crouching down in front of her.

"I think I twisted my ankle. No biggie," she said, getting back up again now that she was prepared for the pain. It was bad but she could deal with it. "Now we just gotta get my toolkit back down," she said, hobbling over to Blue's nose.

"No, you need to wrap your ankle and keep your weight off of it," Lance argued and Pidge rolled her eyes yet again. "She's fine, don't worry," he said to Green as he felt the Lion pressing on his mind again. Pidge assumed he was talking to Blue. She was already assuring her Lion through their bond.

"Don't be such a worry wart, Lance. I'm fi - WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" She shouted as she felt her legs leave the ground and found herself hoisted up into Lance's arms. "Put me down," she snarled and then growled when Lance had the audacity to laugh at her.

"Nope. You're adorable when you try to growl, btw." Lance winked at her and Pidge pretended to vomit. She was placed on a chair a few moments later. "Sit," Lance ordered as he jogged over to another part of the hangar and brought back a red bag.

"Is that a first aid kit?" Pidge asked as he started pulling things out.

"Yup. Each hangar has one. In fact, every room has at least a small one," Lance told her. He knelt down and pulled her right shoe and sock off. Both of them winced at the already-bruising ankle. Lance prodded it a little and Pidge growled every time he hit a particularly painful spot. "Well, it's definitely not broken which is good. Just need to wrap it and ice it," he said before wrapping it up. Once he was done, he packed the first aid kit back up. "Stay here. I'll grab your toolkit."

"How are you gonna do that? Even you're not tall enough to get it," Pidge pointed out but Lance flashed her a cocky smile and an exaggerated wink before climbing up Blue's paw like she was a rock-climbing wall. Once there, she moved her nose closer and he climbed up, patting her as he went. He packed the toolkit up and lowered it back down with the rope before jumping down himself, tucking into a roll to disperse his momentum. He ended on his feet and in a typical 'ta-da!' pose.

"Show off," Pidge muttered loud enough for him to hear. He didn't seem phased by it as he placed her laptop on top of the toolbox which he then placed on the bench next to his helmet before moving to stand with his back right in front of her and crouching back down. "What are you doing?" She asked suspiciously.

"Piggy-back ride. Get on," he said, looking over his shoulder at her.

"Nope. You are not carrying me around," she shook her head violently.

"It's this or I throw you over my shoulder," he told her seriously. "Remember, I have two younger siblings and dozens of younger cousins who tried anything and everything to get me to drop them if I carried them over my shoulder." Pidge deflated a little. There went her plans of trying to annoy him enough to get him to put down. Sighing defeatedly, she draped herself over his back and he lifted her up behind her knees before she wrapped her legs securely around his slim waist, careful of her injured ankle. Lance scooped up her stuff and hollered goodbye to Blue as they left.

"Are your projects in your room or Green's hangar?" Lance asked after a few moments.

"Green's hangar," she said a little unsure of why he was asking until he adjusted his course to head there. "I thought you said I had to rest my ankle," she pointed out to him.

"I did," he agreed. "I also know that you'll get bored after twenty seconds and hobble yourself down to her hangar. Plus, it's not like you have to walk around for most of your work. As long as you ice it every 15 minutes, you should be fine." His logic was actually very sound and Pidge was grateful she wouldn't have to try and walk from her room to the hangar while avoiding everyone. She felt Green chastise her for even considering it.

"Thanks, Lance," she eventually said just as they approached Green's hangar door.

"For what?" Pidge squinted at that. He honestly sounded like he had no clue why she'd thank him.

"Oh, I dunno. Maybe for patching me up and carrying me to Green so I don't injure my idiot self any further?" Pidge's sarcasm was practically dripping out of every word.

"You don't have to thank me for that," Lance told her as the hangar doors opened and Green was revealed, along with the millions of wires and cables Pidge had set up around the half dozen computers and scattered tools. "'Sides, it's my fault you got hurt."

"Oh, so you pushed me off of Blue?" Pidge asked sounding exaggeratedly surprised.

"What? No," Lance said as he dumped her toolkit and laptop in the first spot her could find and lowering her into her chair. Both of them could feel Green purring in their minds. Lance loved it when he heard the other Lions. He wondered if the others felt the same way when they heard everyone else's Lions.

"Then explain to me how this," she pointed to her foot, "is your fault." He placed her sock and shoe next to her.

"Because I'm the one who got hit by the Robeast," he said it as though it was obvious. "If I'd paid more attention, Blue wouldn't have been slammed and her systems wouldn't have been damaged therefore you wouldn't have to fix them and that," he pointed to her foot, "wouldn't have happened." He felt Green and Blue's displeasure at him in his mind.

"Gods, you're such an idiot," Pidge sighed. "Me getting hurt isn't your fault. It was a stupid accident that would've been avoided if I'd looked where I was putting my feet." Lance still looked like he wasn't convinced so she tried a different approach. "If our positions had been switched, would you blame me?" She asked and immediately Lance shook his head.

"No, of course I wouldn't," he told her.

"So why are you blaming yourself?" She asked and that's when Lance realised what she was getting at. He felt Blue's warmth and Green's pride in her Paladin.

"I see what you did there," Lance said and Pidge gave him a smug grin. "Thanks, _hermana_." He grabbed her in a hug, which she indulged for all of ten seconds before pushing him.

"You stink. Go for a shower. But get me an ice pack first!" She ordered and Lance threw his head back to laugh.

"Whatever you say, boss lady." He chuckled as he went out to get her the ice pack, as requested. He smiled to himself as he heard Pidge complain to Green that she was fine and that Lance was just being an overprotective idiot. Funnily enough, Lance thought she sounded almost fond when she said that.

 **A/N - And it's Pidge's turn! I always figured she must've slipped off one of the Lions doing repair work so I used that headcanon as a chapter. As always, thank you to those who have left reviews! Please keep doing so!**

 ** _gracias -_ thanks**

 ** _Chica -_ girl**

 ** _hermana -_ sister**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chap 4 - Keith**

Lance blinked his eyes open blearily. He was curled up on his side, snuggling and drooling on his spare pillow and wrapped up warmly in his blanket. He groaned and wiped his mouth as he turned over to look at the clock Hunk and Pidge had oh-so thoughtfully invented and groaned even louder when he saw how early it was. He flopped onto his back, whacking his hand against the wall when he dramatically threw his arms up, and was now staring at the ceiling and cradling throbbing fingers.

He spent a few ticks trying to figure out why the heck he was awake right now. He hadn't been having a nightmare; his waking up hadn't been nearly violent enough. He was fairly certain there wasn't any noise outside his little room that woke him up because it would've had to have been similar to a bomb to get him up and if that had happened, all sorts of alarms would be blaring. He didn't have to pee and he wasn't thirsty. That really only meant one thing; one of his stupid teammates wasn't getting any sleep. He growled as he kicked the rest of his blankets off and got up.

He checked on Hunk first since he was right next door but the Yellow Paladin was doing a very good impression of a snoring lump. Pidge was next and he half expected her not to be in her room, even though he had forced her into going to bed less than four hours ago, but there she was, curled up around her laptop, glasses askew. He chuckled noiselessly as he moved the laptop so it was no longer dangling precariously in her grip and placed her glasses on her bedside table. He debated on whether to check on Keith next but he decided to save him for last. Having a knife thrown at your face wasn't fun and last time he'd checked on Shiro after Keith, the Black Paladin had assumed he'd had a nightmare just off the fact that he was still shaking. Besides, anytime he woke up because of this reason, Shiro would be the one out and about so he might avoid a knife to his face all together.

Unfortunately, his luck wasn't that good. For once, Shiro was in a deep sleep, not even twitching when his door slid open. Lance left as quietly as he'd entered. Sucking in a deep breath, he headed for the Red Paladin's room. Muttering a prayer to gods he didn't believe in; he pressed his hand to the button and pushed. He quickly threw himself to the side but no knife came flying at him with a vengeance. Peering cautiously around the door, Lance peeked inside but there was no Keith. His sheets were rumbled and his pj's were crumpled on the floor. A quick check confirmed he wasn't in the adjoining bathroom and his knife was missing. This could only mean one thing; the dumb mullet-head was in the training room.

* * *

Lance headed for the training rooms, taking his time since he knew Keith would be easier to goad into going to bed when he was exhausted. The longer he beat up training bots, the better for Lance. He made it to the training room eventually and stood just inside the doorway to watch Keith demolish training bot after training bot. The longer he watched, the more concerned he became. Keith's technique was become desperate, sloppier. The bots' hits were uncomfortably closer to hitting their mark than Keith should be letting them. When the final bot was demolished, Keith stood there, heaving for breath before growling for the next sequence. Lance could feel Red's worry, which definitely made Lance worry more.

"End training sequence," he called, striding into the room, before the bots could even try to attack. The program immediately swallowed them up and Keith spun on his heel, a feral look in his eye.

"What the fuck, Lance?" He demanded and Lance didn't answer him. Instead, he placed his robe and slippers to the side and picked up a staff similar to what Keith was wielding. This left him in flimsy pj's instead of his normal training outfit but he didn't care.

"Figured you could use a sparring partner who has an actual shot at beating your arse," Lance said, squaring Keith up and settling into his own fighting stance. Keith didn't bother doing much more than huffing an irritated breath but he got into position.

"Whatever," Keith snapped and they both waited a moment before Lance launched with his first attack. Keith easily dodged and swung back with his own attack. Lance rolled out of the way and swept out at Keith's feet before being forced to block a blow from above when his attack didn't work.

"So you gonna tell me what's wrong?" Lance asked between blows, both boys nearly chest-to-chest before pushing each other away and circling to find an opening. Lance hadn't made it past Keith's guard yet either but he didn't feel any pride at the fact that Keith ordinarily would've slipped through his own at least three times by now. Lance knew he hadn't gotten any better since the last time they sparred; this was just due to Keith being so tired from fighting the bots.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Keith grunted, staff coming up in a glancing blow that Lance easily side-stepped. This seemed to irritate the Red Paladin even more as he pulled his lips up in a silent snarl and renewed their fight.

"Are you sure?" Lance said, hissing when a hit finally made it past his defences. His shoulder was going to have a lovely coloured bruise in the morning. The hit seemed to wake something up in Keith as he started attacking with more vigour but his fighting style was still wrong. It was like he was attacking without thought now and was unafraid of injuring Lance in the process. It was like he was trying swing out at someone but Lance wasn't that person and the black-haired pilot was getting frustrated. "Are you mad at someone? Pidge?" Keith ignored him and another blow got through; this time to Lance's ribs. "Hunk? Shiro?" Keith still continued to fight and Lance was purely on the defensive now. "Coran? Me?" With each name came another blow but Lance didn't care. He knew he was onto something here.

"Allura?" Keith went completely still at Allura's name which meant that a desperate, and normally easily avoided, hit got him right on his staff-wielding arm. Keith immediately dropped the staff before glaring at Lance. Both boys were breathing hard and Lance could feel each spot he got hit screaming at him but he didn't do anything about it yet.

"Why the hell would I be mad at Allura?" Keith huffed angrily and the fact that anger glinted in his eyes when he said her name just proved Lance was right.

"Because of how she's been acting since you told us about your heritage," Lance pointed out and Keith flinched violently. It had been nearly three days since Shiro and Keith had come back from the Blade of Mamora secret headquarters and dropped the 'oh, btw, Keith is half Galra' bomb on them. Allura was still giving Keith freezer-burn anytime they were so much as in the same room as one another. She spoke to him only when she absolutely had to. Coran had apologised each time she left, promised Keith he was trying to get her to come around, but so far he'd had no any luck. Lance was honestly _this_ close to talking to the Princess himself.

"It doesn't bother me. I'm not angry at her," Keith lied through his teeth, holding his injured arm. He glared when Lance chuckled.

"You wanna try being a bit more convincing this time?" He drawled and Keith spun to face him properly, eyes flashing unrestrained anger.

"What would you know?! What could you possibly know about this? Stop trying to, to sympathise with me or whatever the fuck it is you're doing. I don't want your pity and I don't want you here!" Keith shouted, cheeks flushing red and Lance flinched back at his fury but he didn't leave. Instead, he glared at Keith while he calmed himself down from his outburst.

"What would I know about being on the receiving end of someone's hate purely based on your race?" Lance's voice was overly sarcastic and icy-cold and Keith felt like he'd been drenched in that iciness. "I was nine years old when we moved from Cuba to America and put in public school with the barest grasp on English. I didn't meet Hunk, my first real friend, until we started high school. I'll leave it to your imagination what I had to endure in the meantime." Keith felt his cheeks heat up with shame and anger, not at Lance or Allura this time, but at what he could imagine little nine-year old Lance going through before he met Hunk.

"Lance, I'm-" He started but Lance cut him off.

"I know our situations aren't really similar," Lance said dismissively, like that's what he thought Keith was going to say. "The difference is Allura doesn't hate _you_. She's angry and upset and handling this situation almost as badly as she can without being physical but she doesn't hate you." Keith didn't respond for a moment.

"It sure feels like she does," he finally admitted so quietly Lance almost missed it.

"She trusts you, Keith. As Red's pilot and as her friend and she's just found out that you've got Galra blood in you; the one alien species she has every right to despise above all others. They wiped out her family, her race and her planet. They're the reason she slept for 10,000 years only to wake up in the middle of a war with only Coran, the mice and the five of us to help her. She hates the Galra but she doesn't hate you," Lance told him. Keith hugged his sore arm closer before looking at Lance.

"So why is she acting like this?" He asked, sounding so much like his little brother had when they'd come home from school one day and didn't know why his classmates were making fun of him when all he wanted was to be their friend.

"I just told you; you're one of her closest friends and we just found out you're half-Galra. She wants so badly to hate you but she can't because she knows inside that you are a good person, despite your mullet. She's spent all of this time believing all Galra were evil and then we discovered the Blade, a rebellion camp full of Galras, who want to work with us and then your heritage on top of that. It's too much for her to handle and now she's lashing out at everything Galra to try and put her world right." Lance grabbed him by the shoulders to make him look in his eyes when he said the next part. "Allura is distressed and her actions shouldn't be held against her but that does not mean her actions are right or justified. I'll bet you money she knows that as well. You're her friend and she just needs some time and a firm lecture to admit that the fact you're part Galra doesn't change you."

"What, are you gonna lecture her?" Keith chuckled wetly and Lance pretended not to notice him wiping his eyes.

"Bitch, I might," Lance quipped back before wrapping his hand around Keith's arm and hauling him out of the training area. "Don't think I didn't notice you bleeding. We're heading to the infirmary," Lance said when Keith let out a startled noise at the sudden manhandling.

* * *

Keith's half-hearted protests were firmly ignored and eventually died off by the time they got to the medical wing. Lance sat him down on the same cot he'd sat Hunk down after his kitchen mishap and told him to stay while he grabbed supplies. Once he was all set up, he faced his patient again.

"Okay, can you take your shirt off?" When Keith balked, Lance offered a compromise. "At least get your arm out of the sleeve so I can look at it?" There was a tense moment where Lance thought he'd have to threaten to cut the sleeve off but Keith eventually pulled his arm out of the sleeve. Lance grasped him by the forearm and moved the rest of his shirt to bunch up on his shoulder. "Keith?" Lance voice sounded forcibly calm. Keith winced a little.

"Yes, Lance?" Keith tried and failed miserably at sounding injured.

"Explain why this wound is at least three days old?" He said, pointing to the offending wound. Keith shifted guiltily and Lance unleashed his version of the 'mum' face.

"Because it is. I may have gotten injured fighting the Blades," Keith jolted when he felt a hard slap up against his head. "Hey!" He said indignantly. Lance looked mad and disappointed.

"Show me your other injuries." There was zero room to argue and Keith knew it. Either he could take his shirt off or Lance would and he wouldn't be nice about it. So he did, avoiding eye contact. " _Dios_ , Keith," Lance breathed out as he inspected the rest of his wounds. Finally, Lance stop his scrutinising and took a small step back.

"What's the verdict?" Keith asked lightly, squirming a little under those sapphire blue eyes.

"You're an idiot but we already knew that," Lance said before grabbing the disinfectant. "By some miracle, you don't need stitches but that wound on your other shoulder is a very close thing. I'm gonna disinfect them all and apply this cool jelly stuff that helps knit your skin back together. It's what I did for Hunk though his injury was fresh so I don't know how these will heal up. Everything's gonna get bandaged and I'll check them again tomorrow. I want to keep a close eye on that really deep one. This'll sting, by the way," Lance said as he started spraying the disinfectant on him and Keith jolted at the initial sting.

"Coulda warned me sooner," Keith grumbled as Lance worked.

"Oh, like three days ago, maybe?" Lance snarked and Keith let out an amused huff. "I'm nearly done, you big baby. I'm gonna numb that shoulder as well." Keith hummed in agreement. He didn't know why it still surprised him that Lance knew all of this medical stuff. Eventually the Cuban put the disinfectant down and grabbed the numbing agent before applying it to his shoulder. Keith didn't even realise how much it hurt until it went numb.

"Holy crap," he said, staring at the wound in amazement.

"That bad, huh?" Lance asked, sounding a little sad while he started applying the healing jelly carefully.

"Lance, it's not your fault," he told him gently. "I'm the one who didn't go to you or Coran, remember?" He watched as Lance moved onto his other side to work on those injuries.

"Yeah, well, I know you're practically allergic to asking for help and I should've realised you were hurt sooner," Lance muttered before putting the healing jelly up and grabbing the gauze and shoving it into Keith's hands. He grabbed a piece and placing it on the first cut he reached before bandaging it in place.

"Still not your fault," Keith said, surprising himself at how much he needed Lance to realise he meant it.

True, their 'rivalry' had died down a lot and they were becoming closer but they weren't as close as Keith was to some of the others. Lance hummed noncommittingly and continued his first aid. They sat in silence while Lance worked until Keith felt a light punch to an uninjured part of his arm and Lance was flashing him his bright smile.

"All done," he said, relieving Keith of the excess gauze. "Don't forget, I want to check on those later. Don't make me hunt you down." He pointed a finger at Keith threateningly. Keith smirked before his eye caught something and before he knew it, he had Lance's face in his hands. "What are you doing?" Lance asked, fumbling over his words a little, which Keith found a little endearing if he was being honest.

"You're hurt," he said as he ran his thumb lightly over the bruise on Lance's cheekbone that had caught his eye. His eyes widened a little as he realised how Lance had gotten it. "I'm so sorry." The Blue Paladin reached up and covered his hand with his own before pulling it away gently and giving it a light squeeze as he released it.

"Don't worry about it; it's just a bruise." Lance waved off the apology and continued cleaning up the rubbish as Keith pulled his shirt back on.

"I'm not apologising just for the bruises," Keith said and Lance looked at him quizzically. "I'm sorry about what I said to you in the training room. I was so, so angry and I just lashed out at you when all you were doing was trying to help." Briefly his mind reminded him how it wasn't all that long ago that he wouldn't have bothered apologising to Lance at all.

"It's fine, Keith. I get it. I know you didn't mean what you said," Lance told him, looking a tad confused which in turn confused Keith. Lance was just finishing up when Keith spotted a familiar looking bottle of pink spray. Coran had showed it to him when he'd spotted a large bruise on his arm a few months ago. He was just wondering how he should go about asking Lance if he could help him patch himself up when Lance took the decision out of his hands. "Now, go, shoo! Get back to bed and get some sleep before we're summoned at some god-forsaken hour. You need all the beauty rest you can get, mullet," Lance snickered as he pushed gently on Keith's back to get him going.

"What about the training room? I need to go clean it," Keith protested but Lance tutted at him.

"Nope. Leave that to me. There isn't much to do anyway and I'm not about to drop dead on my feet like you are," Lance argued. "Cleaning the room up should tire me out just enough," he said when Keith opened his mouth to argue again. Lance eventually stopped pushing on Keith to get him to walk and they both stopped when they reached the training room. Keith looked in and realised that Lance was right; there really wasn't much a mess. It was still unfair that Lance should clean it up by himself considering most of it was from Keith.

"Are you sure-?" Keith tried asking but Lance was already shushing him.

"Bed. Now," he ordered and Keith rolled his eyes.

"Fine. You win," he said, turning to leave but paused before he'd even taken one step. "Lance?"

"Yeah, Keith?"

"Thank you." A bright smile answered his shyer one.

"Anytime, Keith."

 **A/N - Keith's chapter is all done and dusted! I had fun with this one but I'm not sure if I pulled off their sparring session well enough. Let me know what you thought in the comments please! Thank you, as always, to those wonderful readers and reviewers! Y'all make my day with your comments!**

 ** _Dios -_ God**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chap 5 - Allura**

Lance had a plan. He'd been observing Allura carefully for the past few days. Not just because she was gorgeous and he liked looking at her, no matter how much Hunk teased. No, Lance had grown to love Allura like one of his sisters or Pidge. Despite the occasional flirty comment, he wasn't interested in trying to hook up or date her, no matter what anyone said. But he noticed something maybe four days ago and since then he'd been watching her carefully whenever they were in the same room as each other. Which was quite often because Lance had inserted himself in whatever room she was in whenever he feasibly could just so he could watch her. He'd come to a conclusion and went to the one person who he knew would confirm his suspicions if he was right.

He'd found Coran in one of the small storage closets. Well, small by the Castle-ships standards. The closet was still bigger than his room back in Cuba and was nearly the same size as his room at home in America. This room seemed to store craft things like yarn and fabric but Lance didn't let that distract him. Instead, he cornered Coran and asked straight up whether he was right or not.

"I'm afraid so, my boy. Allura has been spreading herself too thin these past few weeks. I know you spoke to her about her behaviour regarding Number 4, which I thank you for, and since then she has been trying her hardest to be civil and kind towards the Blades of Mamora. She has also put herself under extra stress, sending diplomatic messages to various planets about joining the alliance and dealing with the high number of distress calls Voltron has been receiving. I'm afraid she has been neglecting herself and is now showing the signs of her exhaustion. I've tried to talk to her but she is very stubborn." Coran informed him sorrowfully. Lance frowned.

"I think I have an idea but I'll need your help. Are you in?" Lance asked and Coran twirled his moustache thoughtfully.

"What do you have in mind, my boy?" He asked, eyes twinkling with gratitude. Lance smiled and told him his idea. Coran offered a few suggestions and soon they had a fell battle plan devised. They'd need help from the other Paladins so Lance headed out to find them and get them on board. It was simple enough to get them to agree. After all, all they had to do was not go near the Princess's chambers and help Coran if he asked for a while.

* * *

The next phase of his mission was to locate the Princess. It wasn't too hard to find her. She was in the mission control centre with Coran. He winked at Coran to let the orange haired Altean know the first phase was successful. Now all they had to do was convince the Princess.

"Lance, my boy!" Coran called once their sign was exchanged. "What can I help you with?" He asked jovially. Lance returned the grin. Allura looked up from the tablet she was studying.

"Hello, Lance," she greeted, trying to offer him her own warm smile but all Lance could see was the exhaustion etched into skin and the effort it took for her to even offer that smile.

"Hey, Coran," the Blue Paladin greeted. "Actually, I was hoping I could steal Allura for a varga or two to help me with something," he said, looking at Allura hopefully.

"I'm sorry, Lance. I'm far too-" Allura tried to excuse herself but Coran jumped in.

"I think that would be fine, Lance. We've looked over all of this information so much, it's practically etched into our brains. I'm sure a little break and doing something different wouldn't hurt," he said, words becoming more pointed. Allura sighed and tried to speak again but Lance beat her.

"Coran's right, Allura. Sometimes you need to step away from something and do something completely different before coming back to your problem with a fresh perspective." He watched her try and find an excuse that would mean she didn't have to leave her work but in the end, she slumped slightly in defeat.

"You're both right. I've been studying this information so much; the words are swimming in front of my eyes. Perhaps a distraction would be beneficial," she said before turning to Coran, missing Lance's fist pump of victory. "You'll fetch me if something happens?" She asked and Coran bowed slightly.

"If I believe I cannot handle it, yes," he told her and she sighed before facing Lance again.

"Shall we?" She gestured for Lance to lead them out.

"See ya, Coran!" He called back to the Altean man with a wave he returned. Allura followed behind him at a slower pace than normal so he matched her speed.

"May I ask what you need help with?" She inquired, a little nervously. Lance didn't really blame her. Last time they were one-on-one, Lance had lectured her about her behaviour towards Keith. Neither of them had come out of that meeting dry-eyed and Allura had rushed off to find Red's pilot as soon as she could. Both had also said some choice things to each other that they later apologised for but Allura had been forced to re-evaluate her opinion of Lance.

"Well, I don't need your help so much as I need a willing volunteer to sit still and let me play with their hair. Pidge's is still too short to do much with and she'd also get bored and attack me after sitting still for five dobashes. Everyone else has hair shorter than her so you're it," Lance told her and she looked at him in bewilderment as she vaguely realised he was leading her to her bed chambers.

"You want to play with my hair?" She asked, hand absentmindedly coming up to touch her hair.

"Well, to braid it, to be more specific," he told her before coming to a stop outside of her door. "Only if you're okay with it though," he said, looking a little like he expected her to tell him off.

"You can braid hair?" She asked as she opened the door to permit them. He looked excited to be allowed in there.

"Yeah, my - woah, your room is awesome! Look at all your clothes! My sisters would be all over this!" He exclaimed as soon as he set foot in the room. She had a massive four-poster bed that could easily fit all of the Paladins, a bathroom that rivalled the size of the training-room one and a closet that could easily fit every item of clothing his entire family owned, twice. She seemed to flush at the comment.

"I know it's a bit much. My father loved indulging my every wish." She seemed embarrassed by how much she had but Lance gave her a blinding grin.

"My two younger sisters will kidnap you and demand you play dress up with them when we get back to Earth. They'll think all of this is great," he told her. "Plus, they'll be so jealous I got to fight in space with a real-life princess." He winked at her, causing her to chuckle at him.

"So how do you want to do this? It's been so long since I've had someone do my hair," she asked, vaguely recalling having maids do her hair when she was a young child. As she grew older, she rebelled against having help, wanting to be more independent, so she did her own hair and only had help dressing herself for royal events. Lance surveyed her room.

"How about we sit on your bed? I want to try a few different braids so we may as well be comfortable," he said before realising something. "Oh yeah. Do you have any hair ties and pins? And a brush! Maybe some ribbons?" He asked and she gestured to her vanity table. He approached it with glee before digging through her draws. He did not come up empty handed, to his absolute delight. Armed with what he needed, he headed for her bed before unceremoniously dumping the load on her fluffy doona and clambering up so he was practically in the middle. "Come on, sit in front of me," he said, patting the spot he meant. She kicked her shoes off before doing as she was asked.

"So how do you know how to braid?" She asked as she felt his nimble fingers release her hair from its usual style.

"I have one older sister and two younger ones plus various cousins. When my older sister, Veronica, was 9 she broke her arm while playing and couldn't put her hair up. I was 7 and watched our mother do her hair for her. When mamá had to work early mornings, Veronica was normally stuck with her hair down, which wasn't that good in summer months. So, I asked if I could do it for her. It took a few tries but eventually I got good at it. Soon I was able to do all sorts of elaborate styles and my younger sisters joined the line up to get their hair done for school. Whenever my girl cousins were over, they wanted their hair braided by me and even some of my male cousins joined in on it," Lance told her this while he was brushing her hair out, using his fingers first before the actual hairbrush. She found herself relaxing a little more each time the brush ran through her locks. She'd forgotten how nice it was to have someone else do her hair.

"How often did you do their hair?" She asked and he chuckled.

"Every day," he said, brushing her hair more to ensure every knot was gone. "When we moved, the only family members whose hair I could do were my sisters. My younger sisters are little terrors. It didn't matter how tired I was or how stressed, I had to do their hair every morning and before bed every night. They wouldn't let mamá do their hair unless I was away from the house for whatever reason. When I got accepted to the Garrison, I taught them to do each other's hair. I promised them both I'd do really special braids for them for their next birthdays." She didn't like the sad tone his voice had suddenly taken

"Why didn't you?" She almost didn't want to know the answer.

"We found Blue a couple of weeks before my youngest sister's birthday," he told her and she felt the familiar ache of guilt run through her system. None of the Paladins had asked to major parts of this ancient war and she knew they were only here because they wanted to help and because she asked them to stay. "But it's okay. I'll just have to do some really special braids for them once we've won this war and can go home." Lance's voice had returned to its usual cheerfulness but Allura still felt guilty.

She knew, of course, that each Paladin had their own family back on Earth. Lance brought his up all the time; always having a story about a family member for every kind of conversation. Hunk and Shiro brought theirs up on the odd occasion, Hunk more so than Shiro. Keith rather bluntly told everyone his only family was Shiro, though now they knew there was the possibility they'd find his Galran family out here, and Pidge was more focused on finding her missing father and brother instead of sharing stories.

While Allura was glad she could offer Pidge the opportunity to find her missing family, she knew that the others missed theirs deeply and that not being able to so much as call them to make sure they were okay and to assure them their missing sons and brothers were okay was getting to them. Especially Lance. They'd all noticed the days where he got particularly quiet, only engaging in conversation when required. Hunk had quietly informed them that those days were family members birthdays or special days for his family. The day they realised a full Earth year had passed, Lance had excused himself and no one could find him for the entire day. When they saw him again the next day, he was back to his normal self and changed the topic whenever someone tried to ask if he was okay. Allura came to the realisation that they'd eventually stopped asking each other if they were okay at all.

She felt gentle tugs on her hair as Lance started his braiding and they lapsed into a comfortable silence, for Lance at least. He was seemingly unaware of the Princess's inner turmoil and small realisations. He hummed as he worked and, despite what was going on in her head, she could feel herself sinking further and further into relaxation.

"You know, Allura, none of us blame you," Lance spoke suddenly, startling Allura so much she actually jolted.

"How'd you know what I was thinking?" She asked and he hummed.

"Well, I mention missing my sister's birthday because we found Blue and you suddenly got all tense again. Doesn't take a genius to put two and two together," he told her and she frowned a little. Was she really that easy to read? "When you're tired, yes," Lance said and she baulked a little. She had not meant to say that out loud.

"I'm fine, Lance," she tried to assure him but the Blue Paladin was having none of it. Since he held her hair hostage, she wasn't going anywhere.

"Really? So the fact that you're practically asleep right now is you not being tired? Or when you nearly fell asleep at breakfast yesterday or when you were walking down one of the halls the day before?" Lance argued, fingers still tugging and twisting her hair. She felt herself growing angry. "You shouldn't be pushing yourself this hard. I know you haven't been getting enough sleep lately and add on the stress of your role, you're eventually going to run yourself down too much and it'll be so much worse to deal with the fallout."

"I don't need you to lecture me about my sleeping habits!" She wasn't quite yelling but it was a near thing. "I am completely fine! We're in the middle of a war and some people know how to take it seriously! So what if I miss some sleep every now and then?! I have too much work to do with the alliance and helping planets to worry about something as insignificant as sleep! I am Princess Allura of Altea and I am -" Lance cut her off.

"You are acting like a child," he told her calmly. She couldn't see his face from how they were positioned and she hadn't yet pulled away from his ministrations. "You may be the princess and you may be the only one who can activate the Castle's weapons and keep it running when we get into trouble but you are not the only person on this ship. You are not the sole member of this team." To her frustration and embarrassment, she realised she had begun crying.

"But-" she started but Lance shushed her and continued.

"We are your team and we all want to help you more. Don't you realise how worried Coran has been lately? Or Shiro? Or any of us? I thought Coran was going to cry when you almost collapsed the other day and refused his help!" He told her and she took a shuddering breath. She hadn't realised any of that. "Coran knows this Castle better than any of us, maybe even you, and you refuse to let him help unless it's repair work. Shiro and Keith are brilliant strategic thinkers and yet you've been shutting them out for mission planning. Pidge has been trying to learn as much about the Lions and the Castle so she can help with them to ease your burden, even a little. And if you just sat down with me and Hunk, gave us a few pointers, we could help with the diplomatic side of things. We are pretty good at that sort of thing," he told her and she shook her head a little.

"I can't ask any of you to do that. You need to be ready for missions," she argued and Lance sighed.

"Allura, we go on maybe four missions a week. We usually have a day or so between them and you can only train so much, no matter what Mullet-head says." She gave a wet chuckle at that. "We can help in our off time. We _want_ to help in our off time. You're just not letting us. You've got this idea in your head that you're the only one around here capable of doing everything and you're not. You're always lecturing us about not working together as a team. Maybe you should follow your own advice," he told her before they lapsed back into silence; Lance's words were ringing in her head. She barely noticed him letting a small growl of frustration out as he undid all of the braiding he'd managed before brushing her through again to start over.

"You're right," she whispered and heard his small grunt to show he was listening. "I have been relying far too much on myself to do everything that doesn't physically involve flying a Lion instead of letting you all assist me while berating you for not working as a team. I will do my best to remedy that." They fell back into silence as Allura dried her eyes and Lance continued with his braiding.

"You could start that by apologising to everyone, especially Coran. He was really worried about you," Lance offered and Allura let out a shaky sigh.

"I'll do that," she promised. "But first, I'd like to apologise to you, Lance." She felt his fingers still for a moment before resuming their movements.

"What for?" He sounded genuinely confused.

"For what I said to you just now. It wasn't true. I know you're taking this war seriously and I know you're doing your best. You all are. It was cruel and it was a low blow for to say otherwise. So I am sorry and I would really appreciate your help with the alliance," she said and Lance huffed in amusement.

"You don't have to apologise to me, Princess. I know you didn't mean it. People who are under a lot of undue stress always crack at some point and lash out at whoever is closest so I know you didn't mean what you said," he lied smoothly. He knew that people who were in the middle of a breakdown often spoke their mind, no matter how harsh it was. Allura's unfiltered comment had struck a lot closer to home than Lance would ever admit but he refused to add to Allura's guilt. "But I'd be happy to lend a hand wherever you think I can," he told her truthfully. He was always willing to help the others out. It made him feel useful. Blue whined in his head that he didn't have to prove anything and he loved her for that.

"Thank you, Lance. Truly," she said, turning to give a real, beautiful smile. Lance felt his cheeks warm up with the intense gratitude coming from her.

"You're welcome, Princess. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health; don't forget that. If you feel like you're getting overwhelmed by everything again, talk to one of us. We don't like seeing you hurting," he told her, holding her gaze sternly before breaking into a grin. "Now face forward so I can finish this braid. Do you want to hear about when I tried to braid my sister's hair as soon as she climbed out of our pool without brushing it first? She was so mad," he asked and Allura grinned as she did as she was told.

"I'd love to hear about it," she said and he launched into the story without further prompting.

* * *

Lance continued telling every hair-related story he could think of when he saw Allura's head dipping down to her chest more and more often. He peeked around her side during the retelling of a story involving a round hairbrush and one sister's attempts at rolling their hair around it and getting it very tangled to see Allura completely asleep. He grinned, finishing off her hair in record time before tying it up so she could sleep on it without ruining the design. Once done, he pushed all the excess hair stuff to the side and gently helped Allura lay down before tucking her in and cleaning the bed off. She didn't so much as twitch before he turned out the lights and shut her door before heading off to find Coran to tell him the plan was a success.

* * *

When Allura woke, she'd assumed she'd only been napping for a few dobashes, a varga at most. Imagine her shock when she saw it had been nearly 12 vargas since she'd last looked at her clock. She moved off of her bed in a confused daze. The last thing she remembered was Lance telling her a story while playing with her hair. The warm voice and the feeling of someone running their fingers through her hair had made her so relaxed and sleepy... She paused, shocked, when she realised what exactly had happened.

"LANCE McCLAIN!" She shouted, very unprincess-like but she didn't seem to care as she stormed into the dining room where nearly everyone was gathered.

"That's my name; don't wear it out," he quipped back automatically. He wasn't the only who was shocked when Allura seemed to falter.

"You can wear your name out?" She asked, sounding concerned, and Pidge, Hunk and Lance all exchanged the same slightly evil grin. Shiro intervened.

"No, Princess, it's just an expression," he assured her as the three younger Paladins groaned.

"Shiro!" Lance whined while Pidge and Hunk pouted. "How could you steal that opportunity from us?" He sounded betrayed. Shiro and Keith rolled their eyes simultaneously.

"Easily," he told them before turning back to Allura. "You were yelling at Lance?" He asked, glancing between the two.

"Yes, please go back to yelling at Lance," Keith mumbled into his dinner, loud enough to be heard. Lance immediately bristled but didn't get a chance to argue with the Red Paladin.

"Yes. You tricked me," she accused and Lance didn't look even slightly confused or ashamed.

"Yeah. You needed to sleep. Playing with my sisters hair always sent the little she-devils off to sleep almost immediately. Figured Alteans probably would do the same thing," he told her and she looked shocked that he didn't deny it. "Modelling your sleeping habits on Pidge or Keith is not something you want to be doing if you're gonna lead this alliance right and win the war. You need as much sleep as the rest of us so you can be at your strongest," he pointed his spoon at her, ignoring Pidge and Keith's mutters. Allura felt like a little kid being scolded again.

"You may be right." Lance gave her a look and she amended her statement. "You are right. I should look after myself better so I can be a better leader," she said and he smiled at her, ignoring the shocked look on some of the Paladin's face when she admitted Lance was right.

"You got it." He noticed her looking around for the missing orange-haired member of their family. "Coran's in the control centre," he told her and she gave him a smile.

"Thanks. I'm going to talk to him. Has he had dinner yet?" She asked.

"Not to my knowledge and I've been in the kitchen for the past two varga preparing everything," Hunk said and she nodded.

"Okay. I'll get him to join me for dinner later," she said before turning to go and find her missing advisor so she could apologise to him. "Thanks, Lance," she said before she left and he gave her a salute.

"Anytime, Princess."

 **A/N - I seriously would love your reviews on this chapter. Writing this one was really difficult because I wasn't confident in writing one where the character wasn't physically hurt but I wanted Allura's chapter to be about her mental health because I think it's just as important an issue. So pretty please, let me know what you think to it. Again, thank you to those who have been reviewing. It means the world to me!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 - Shiro**

They'd been called in by the Blades of Mamora to help them liberate a Galra-infested planet when even more Galrans had shown up, quickly outnumbering the Blades. Keith had been with them but had soon re-joined Voltron to pilot Red in the mission. Voltron had been formed and hit with some sort of weapon that had forced Shiro to order them to disband. The Galra had then managed to separate them into two groups; Shiro and Lance on one side and the other three fighting on the other side. A massive amount of Galra fighter ships were in the middle and the five of them were desperately fighting to regroup, take out the new weapon and form Voltron once again.

Lance and Blue were doing their best. A burst of the freeze ray took out a good chunk of fighters and they never missed a shot with the tail laser but they were still being driven from Shiro and Black. Lance didn't want them separated because he knew they'd be far easier to pick off one by one so he kept freezing and shooting them until he was back on Shiro's six.

"Lance, are you holding up okay?" Shiro's strained voice came in over his comms and Lance could feel Black and Blue talking to each other.

"About as well as can be expected. Blue's taken a couple of hits but nothing major. We should be fine," he reported. "What about you and Black?"

"About the same." Shiro grunted as the both of them fired off more shots, taken down at least one Galra fighter with each one.

Lance saw an opportunity and fired, taking down four fighters with one laser blast and gave a shout of victory. He didn't notice one of the main ships lining their ion canon up to fire at Blue. Shiro did and the next thing Lance knew, his name was being shouted over the comm and he and Blue were sent careening to the side. He managed to steady her before looking around for what hit him and was horrified to see Shiro and Black falling. Black's yellow eyes were dark and there was smoke billowing from her flank but the worst part was that they were now caught in the gravitational pull of the planet below and were rapidly approaching the surface.

"Shiro!" Four voices mingled as each member of the team shouted his name through the comms.

"His comms have been knocked offline and Black isn't responding." Allura's panicked voice came over the line from the Castle-ship. Red immediately went to follow but were blocked by a dozen fighters and for each one she and Keith managed to destroy, two more took their place. Black had started to glow from the heat of re-entry and Lance moved on instinct.

Using his bayard, he summoned Blue's sonic canon and fired the biggest blast he could at the Galra blocking his path before he and Blue dove straight the hole they'd created. They followed Black's path and Lance blocked out the cries of his name from his team members, eyes focused solely on Black. They'd nearly caught up with them, Blue pushing herself as fast as she could go, when Lance realised what they were heading for. Despite the fact that it was lavender, Lance knew it was this planet's ocean. He and Blue could probably survive sinking to the depths of it but he knew Black probably couldn't and if that shot had managed to rip a hole in her side, their chances of survival were gone. Not to mention that even if Shiro could get out, his prosthetic would weigh him down and make swimming impossible. So Lance did the only thing he could at the time.

"Sorry, Shiro and Black. This'll probably hurt," he said as he swung Blue further away before pulling her right back in, ramming Black up the side in a bone-rattling crash and throwing them off their course. As the Paladins still fighting shouted in shock, Black hit the surface of the planet and whatever constituted as their dirt sprayed up around her before she came to a stop. Lance barely managed to slow Blue down enough to stop her following suit but they still hit the planet with enough force that Blue still ended up imbedded into the surface slightly and Lance would've been thrown onto the console in front of him if he hadn't been strapped in. They landed right next to Black and, though Lance could feel his whole body aching from the collision, he scrambled out of the pilot seat anyway and nearly faceplanted in his rush to get out. The surface he was soon standing on felt spongey and he mentally thanked whoever he could think of as the softer surface would've made the crash a little softer.

Black was still dark. She was sprawled on her side and Lance could see her surface glowing slightly from entering the atmosphere so fast. He couldn't see any breaches in her skin which meant that the shot from the ion canon hadn't made it through her. Lance breathed a sigh of relief at that. He placed a hand on her muzzle and shut his eyes in concentration. After a few tense seconds he felt it; Black's presence in his mind. It meant they hadn't lost her.

"Come on, Black. You need to wake up," Lance murmured as he tried to nudge the faint conscience of the Black Lion with his own mind. "I know you're hurting and I am so, _so_ sorry I caused it but you need to wake up so I can check on Shiro. I need to make sure he's okay. Please, Black." Lance could feel Blue trying to help and after an anxiously tense ten seconds, Black's eyes lit up and she started moving. Lance immediately fell back to stand under Blue so he wouldn't accidentally get smooshed as he watched Black reposition herself onto her stomach and place her head between her front paws before lowering her jaw for Lance to enter. He did so, moving as quick as he could. "Thank you," he said as he entered the cargo section of her interior and beelining for the cockpit.

He had no idea what he'd find when he entered and his mind had already jumped to every worst scenario it could possibly think of. He was relieved to see the console and chair intact and looking perfectly operational, though communications seemed to be down. He could see the back of Shiro's helmet and he quickened his pace until he was in front of the Black Paladin. He released the breath he didn't even know he was holding when he saw Shiro blinking slowly back up at him.

"Lance?" He asked, voice slurring a little and Lance winced. He probably had a concussion.

"Yeah, it's me," Lance said as he gave Shiro a once over. There was a nasty looking gash on his outer left thigh and Lance could see a little bit of blood splattered on the inside of his visor. "How are you feeling?" He asked, crouching a little in front of him.

"Um, bruised. I have a huge headache and my leg hurts. Also, a little confused," he admitted, blinking a little more to get his vision to focus. He wasn't too out of it to miss Lance flinching at that.

"Yeah, that's probably to be expected. Honestly, I'm surprised that's all of your injuries," Lance admitted before straightening up. "Come on, let's get you out of Black. Blue says the surface is safe for us and the air is fine if we want to take out helmets off. Plus, I need to look at those injuries and the surface is a lot softer than Black. No offence, Black," he added, petting the first section of console he could reach. He felt Black's tired huff of bemusement and felt a pang of guilt. Black immediately tried to assure him she wasn't mad at him but Lance turned his attention to his team leader.

"Yeah, okay," Shiro said and started to stand up before wobbling dangerously. Lance grabbed him before he could fall back down and pulled his human arm over his shoulder and supporting him as they slowly limped down Black's ramp. Lance settled Shiro against one of Black's massive paws.

"I'm just gonna go grab Blue's first aid kit. I'll be back in a minute," Lance said before heading for his own Lion. He winced when he saw the damage she took when they hit Black for the first time. "I'm sorry, Blue," he whispered.

 _"There's no need for you to be sorry, my little cub."_ Blue's sweet voice lilted through his mind. " _I would've done the same thing if you hadn't asked me. It was the only way to make sure my sister wasn't lost."_

"But you're hurt because of a decision I made. Both you and Black are," Lance argued softly as headed up Blue's ramp.

 _"But Black is here with us because of your actions. Besides, this damage? This is nothing that can't be fixed,"_ Blue told him. " _Black doesn't blame you either. You would know this if you hadn't cut her off before."_ Lance felt shame trickle through his body. He hadn't realised he'd cut Black off before she could finish talking to him. He grabbed the first-aid kit from the little alcove it normally lived in and went to make his way back to Shiro when a noise from the console stopped him in his tracks. He quickly made his way over and sat in the pilot's seat just as Pidge's face appeared on the video screen.

"Lance! There you are! Why didn't you answer us?" She demanded immediately. Lance was momentarily confused. They hadn't tried to contact him. His helmet comms hadn't so much as made static noise. A thought came to his mind and he yanked off said helmet, turning it in his hands so he could see the side he knew the wires for the comms were and saw a massive dent in it.

"Fuck. Sorry, Pidge. Looks like my helmet comms are offline and I only just got back into Blue," he told her before placing the now useless helmet onto his belt. "Shiro is okay. He's in better shape than I expected him to be in, at least. Black and Blue are both still operational but Black's energy is severely depleted and Blue isn't too much better in that department," he told them quickly, wanting to get back out to Shiro. Keith's angry face cut in before Pidge could dorm any sort of response.

"What the fuck kind of move was that?!" He spat furiously and Lance felt his own anger rise.

"A move that saved his and Black's life." His voice turned icy. Despite the fact that he hated making that move, he knew that it was the only move he could have made. Still, he hated that the Lions had both gotten hurt because of it. "Tell me, Keith, do you know what would've happened to Black if she'd hit that water at the speed she was going? I don't but I'd put money onto her not being in one piece afterwards. Assuming Shiro survived an impact so violent it could've torn a Lion apart, how do you suppose he gets himself out of that situation with a heavy metal arm trying to drag him further down? Even if Black had survived in one piece and Shiro hadn't been killed on impact, Blue isn't strong enough even at full strength to dive and bring Black back to the surface and on land. So tell me, Keith, what _exactly_ would you have done in my position?" He asked, glaring angrily at the screen. Keith glared back, cheeks flushing at having been put on the spot.

"I would've seen that shot coming instead of messing around." Lance could hear Hunk and Pidge's sharp gasps despite the roaring in his ears.

 _"My cub, what Red's Paladin has said has been said out of anger. He doesn't truly mean it. This is not your fault, my cub!"_ Blue cried in his head and Lance loved that she loved him enough to say that but he knew they both knew Keith was right.

"Pidge," Lance's voice was forcibly calm and controlled as he turned purposefully away from the screen Keith was on and faced Pidge, "what are the Galra doing?" He saw Green's pilot look at him, concern thick on her face.

"Lance, Kei-" Lance cut her off.

"The Galra, Pidge," he snapped. Guilt filtered through his anger and humiliation as Pidge flinched and his posture softened. "Sorry but we don't have time for you to try and make excuses for him or to try and make me feel better." Pidge visibly swallowed as she turned to her display.

"You have incoming. At least two dozen fighters bound for you and the Lions," she told him.

"Okay." He nodded as he let the words sink in. "Do what you can to keep the rest at bay. Try throwing seed bombs at the main ships. Use Green's accelerated plant growing power to destroy the ships from the inside out. Hunk, use Yellow's hidden ability. The extra speed and deadly claws will take the Galra by surprise and you'll take out a tonne of them before they can adjust. Red," he spoke directly to the Lion and heard the answering purr in his head, "use your back-rail gun. Take down any fighters that try and enter the planet's atmosphere." He could sense Red's anger and was shocked it wasn't directed at him but he didn't dwell on it.

"What about you?" Hunk asked, sounding scared and worried.

"I'll do what I can to get the Lions back up and running so we can at least defend ourselves on the ground. At the very least I'll be able to use their shielding to protect us. I won't be able to hear you guys if I'm not in Blue's cockpit but have your Lion's pass on messages if you need to. I've got to go. I need to check on Shiro. Stay safe." He saw Keith open his mouth to say something but he cut the feed before he could. He needed to keep his head calm while he patched Shiro up so he didn't make another mistake.

* * *

First things first though, he needed to protect them from the incoming Galra fighters. He could already see the first ones approaching rapidly. He made his way out of Blue and placed the first aid supplies next to Shiro, who looked much more alert than before, found some gauze and placed it against the gash in his thigh with instructions to put pressure on it. Then he tried to figure out how he could use the shielding so he wouldn't have to leave the protective circle of one Lion to get to the other if needed when an idea came to him.

"Black, Blue, do you think you can put up your shields but so they connect to each other?" He asked and at the confused response from Black, sent a mental image of what he was asking for. Understanding flooded through Black and suddenly he and Shiro were surrounded by electric blue shielding. A bang echoed off one side and Lance startled as he realised just how close he'd cut it. The shield, instead of circling each lion, merged in the middle so they were covered from every side but Lance and Shiro could walk to either Lion without having them make a gap and risking themselves.

Happy with the defences and checking both Lions were okay and able to hold the shield up, Lance focused his attention on Shiro once more. The Galra kept firing at the shield but the Lions held firm though it did put Lance on edge slightly. The gauze Lance had given Shiro was soaked with blood and the Cuban felt himself panic slightly. At first glance, the gash didn't look like it had reached the femoral artery but maybe he was mistaken? A rational voice in the back of his head told him that if the artery had been hit, Shiro would've bled out by now but he ignored it.

"Good job with the Lions. Using the shields like that was very clever," Shiro praised him and Lance managed a weak smile in response before turning back to the first aid kit. He'd inspected Blue's soon after he'd finished learning what everything was in the medical bay. While it had originally contained supplies that would've been useful, not all of it was human-friendly so Lance had sorted through it and repacked it to be more suitable to his species. The extra gauze and bandages he'd packed would definitely come in handy and so would the painkillers. Lance had been curious as to why they hadn't been included in the original kit but Blue had told him it was because those particular painkillers weren't strong enough to be effective for the old Paladins. "Lance, are you alright?" Shiro's voice broke him out of his memories.

"Yeah, Shiro. Perfectly fine," he answered a little distractedly as he focused on Shiro. He threw the bloodied gauze to the side so he could get a closer look at the wound. His first instinct had been right; the gash was nowhere near the femoral artery and he sighed in relief. Apparently, Shiro just bled a lot.

"Really? So your arm isn't bothering you? Did you take some painkillers already?" Lance frowned at him and Shiro pointed to his right arm and Lance followed it with his eyes. Blood was running down his armour and dripping onto Shiro and the ground.

"What the?" Lance muttered as he got that part of his armour off and hissed when he touched the wound. Growling in annoyance, he grabbed some gauze and part of his armour. He covered the wound and used the armour piece to keep it in place while he turned back to Shiro. "It's just a scratch. I'll deal with it later," he said, trying to sound as optimistic as he could and wiped the blood he'd dripped onto Shiro off, thankful it hadn't actually gotten into the open wound.

"It didn't look like a scratch and it certainly bled like it wasn't just a scratch," Shiro pointed out, eyebrow raised from underneath his visor.

"Whatever you reckon, Shiro. Let's just deal with you first. This'll sting," he warned just as he used the disinfectant. Shiro swore and moved away instinctively but Lance kept a firm grip on him. "Stay still," he scolded as he continued to clean the wound out. Shiro kept letting out little hisses but he didn't move away. The gash was deep and Lance swore once he got a proper look at it now that it was clean.

"That bad, huh?" Shiro asked as Lance looked through his medical kit again but coming up empty on what he needed. Shiro thought he heard him mutter something along the lines of 'useless' but he couldn't be talking about himself. He was probably just calling the medical supplies that. Lance sighed before grabbing the last of the gauze and turning back to Shiro.

"You need stitches but I never thought to pack anything for wounds that bad," Lance said before tearing the split in Shiro's black uniform wider. "I'm gonna pack this with gauze and wrap it as tight as I can. That should minimise the bleeding long enough for the Castle to get here or for Black to get enough energy to make it back. Unless..." Lance trailed off before looking straight up at Black. "Black, I haven't messed with your first aid kit yet, have I?" He asked and Shiro looked stunned.

 _"No, not yet,"_ Black answered back, her words too faint in Shiro's head for him to believe she was talking directly to him. He looked at Lance and saw his eyes light up as if he heard Black. But that couldn't be right. None of them could hear any Lion other than their own. Lance was speaking again before he could comment.

"Do you remember if there was anything in it that could be used as stitches?" If there were, he could stitch this wound shut which would better if the Castle or Black weren't able to help for more than a few hours.

 _"I'm sorry, Blue's cub, but there's nothing like what you need in there,"_ Black told him regrettably and Lance's face fell.

"Not your fault, gorgeous," he said, petting her paw gently. "Looks like we're gonna have to do this the other way," Lance sighed before folding the gauze in half to try and use less of what they had left, just in case he needed to change the bandages more than once before they got help. "I need to apply a decent amount of pressure so this will hurt. Try and stay still," he warned the older man, who simply nodded and gritted his teeth. Lance was quick and thorough. He got the gauze in place and started wrapping the bandages around the leg, pants and all. He taped the bandage closed before looking back up at Shiro. "Feel okay? Not too tight?" He asked, concern flooding his blue eyes.

"No, it's good. Thank you, Lance," Shiro said sincerely and was slightly taken aback when Lance gave him a weird look before his long, slender fingers were working their way over the remaining section of his armour, removing them quickly before gently exploring the rest of his body for any other injuries. Unsurprising to both of them, there were a few cracked, if not completely broken, ribs and Lance said his shoulder felt like it had been jarred but hadn't settled back properly. Shiro let out a yelp of pain when Lance managed to put it in place properly.

"Sorry. I'm sorry," Lance murmured while Shiro fought to get his breathing under control. Once it was, Lance placed his hands on either side of Shiro's helmet before meeting his eyes. "Am I right to take this off?" He asked and Shiro nodded. Lance pullet the helmet off slowly and was relieved to see that the blood splatter was caused by a small cut. He still checked his head but there no bumps, bruises or blood he could see. He gently cleaned the cut and put some of the healing jelly on it.

While Lance had been working on Shiro, his own body had started to relax. Adrenalin had coursed through his body from the fight through to the crash landing and the exchange with Keith. Now that he wasn't in imminent danger, the adrenaline faded and any injuries he'd suffered were no longer willing to be ignored. His whole body ached, the right side more than the left, and his arm was throbbing. He must have done something to his left knee because it was painful to walk on but he still got up.

"Black? Can I grab your first aid kit, please?" He asked her and she lowered her ramp for him once again. "Thanks, girl," he said as he limped up to where the first aid kit was located and taking it back down with him. Plonking himself down so he was resting a few feet away from Shiro but close enough he could still help him if something happened, he opened the kit up and dumped the contents. He undid the piece of armour that was acting like a bandage and removed the gauze. Like Shiro's, it had bled through but Lance had only used the one bit of gauze in comparison to the several he'd shoved onto Shiro's leg the first time.

He tossed the bloodied gauze over on to his rubbish pile before trying to tear the rip wider like he'd done with Shiro before but ended up tearing the whole sleeve off. Shrugging, he placed it aside to fix it later and pushed the remainder of the sleeve up out of his way. He grabbed what remained of the disinfectant and used it, barely hissing at the stinging pain, before cleaning it up and looking at it properly. He could probably use some stiches himself but he wrapped it the same way he did Shiro's leg. His knee should really be wrapped but he might need those bandages for Black's pilot later so he opted to leave it.

Shiro watched as the younger man patched himself up. It looked almost clinical the way he did it. He didn't flinch as he was cleaning out his own injury and he was disturbingly good at securing the bandage, despite only be able to use the one hand. That sort of ease came from lots of practise and Shiro was starting to get an uneasy feeling he knew how he got the practise. He wanted to ask about it or about Lance's ability to talk to all of the Lions but a different question came out of his mouth.

"How did you learn all of this?" Shiro asked and Lance looked it him like it was an obvious answer.

"Coran told me what everything does." The 'duh' was implied but Shiro shook his head.

"No, I meant how do you know all of this medical stuff? Like how to properly wrap injuries or check for head wounds?" Lance's mouth fell open in a silent 'oh' before he answered.

"Eh, I was the middle child of five siblings. Two younger, two older. They fought all the time and sometimes they got hurt. My mamá is a nurse so I helped her patch them up when I was younger. When I got older, I read her medical textbooks so my sibs could come to me for help and avoid mamá's lectures. It also helped me improve my English so that was a bonus." Lance shrugged. "While we lived in Cuba, _mi_ _familia_ would come around when they got hurt instead of going to the hospital because we couldn't afford to pay them. I helped with them as well. Mamá always thought I would become a doctor when I was older but I knew I wasn't sm- I mean, I knew I wanted to go to space instead so I applied for Garrison. I volunteered sometimes in the medical ward there as well." Shiro narrowed his eyes slightly as Lance backtracked over what he was about to say. He had a feeling he knew what the Blue Paladin was about to say and as much as he wanted to confront him, now was not the time.

There were more banging noises against the shield but these sounded different, like someone knocking on a door rather than firing lasers at it. Shiro and Lance looked curiously over in the direction they were coming from and were shocked to see a flesh-and-blood Galra standing there, armed to the teeth. The two Paladins exchanged 'what the fuck' glances before Lance got to his feet. Shiro tried but Lance pushed him back down and very firmly suggested he sit still.

"Can I help you?" Lance asked once he was about midway between the soldier and Shiro. The Galran's mouth twisted in displeasure, like it was an actual hardship to talk to Lance. "Come on, buddy. I don't have all day to stand around here while you try to figure out how to use your words instead of your fists," Lance sighed which riled the Galra up even more.

"Disgusting. How something as pathetic as you became a Paladin is a mystery," he spat out eventually.

"To you and me both." Lance rolled his eyes. "Is this just gonna be you insulting me or is there an actual reason behind this visit?" Shiro had never been more thankful for a shield to separate Lance from the Galra before in his life. The flippantly asked question made the Galra snarl in anger and Lance cooed, _actually cooed_ , at him and Shiro nearly choked on laughter. "Do you guys know how much you look like kittens when you get cranky? It's _adorable_ ," Lance practically squealed and the Galra looked like he was about to explode.

"I'm here to accept your surrender, you worthless-" he snarled and Lance cut him off.

"Surrender? I don't remember us surrendering. Shiro?" He turned to look at the Black Paladin, mock confusion on his face and Shiro shook his head, mostly in exasperation at Lance. Lance turned back to the Galra. "Sorry, man. You got some bad info. No one here is surrendering." Lance gave him a 'what can you do?' shrug.

"You insufferable human!" The Galran growled before smiling unpleasantly. "We have the three other pilots of Voltron and they will pay for your lack of respect!" The Galran's voice promised pain.

 _"They lie, my cub. My sisters and their cubs are safe,"_ Blue promised him and Black confirmed what she said. Shiro spluttered behind him but Lance just gave the Galran a bored look.

"Would you like time to come up with a better story?" He asked, making a calming gesture to Shiro as Black explained the situation to him. The Galran scowled at Lance.

"Do you not care about your friends lives at all? The Galran Empire only has use for the Lions of Voltron, not their Paladins. If you do not surrender to us immediately, they will be killed as slowly as possible and we will make you listen to their screams! How long do you think the little Green one will last?" The Galran asked, voice tinted in dark pleasure and Lance felt a rush of anger ripple through him. He didn't act on it though. Instead, he sighed like he couldn't believe the Galran was still rolling with that story and made a gesture to Blue.

"You ready, my girl?" He asked and could feel Blue's eagerness for his plan. They needed time for it to work though. They'd only discovered this ability a few weeks ago and it had been a struggle perfecting it. It would be the first time they've used it in a battle scenario. So they constructed a way to buy time. Blue projected a video screen and Pidge, Hunk and Keith's faces appeared on the screen. Lance turned back to the Galran soldier. "I'm sorry, what were you lying?" He asked and Shiro snorted.

"Lance? What's going on?" Hunk asked, voice drowning Pidge's and Keith's. "Why are there Galra there?"

"Everything's good. Lieutenant Kitty Cat here was just claiming how they captured you and were gonna make you suffer if we didn't surrender to them," Lance said cheerily, pointing a thumb over with shoulder to the irate Galran. Hunk and Pidge looked like they were struggling to breathe without laughing and Keith looked like he didn't know how he should react.

"You insolent-!"

"Again with the insults, dude. You need a better hobby. Like, seriously. You aren't very good at this. Do you take lessons from Zarkon? His insults are only slightly better than yours." Lance asked, sounding honestly curious. Keith made a strangled noise while Pidge and Hunk continued their struggle. Shiro had never seen a Galran look so intent on murdering someone.

"How dare you speak the Emperor's name in such a tone! You will be begging us for a quick death once-" The Galran didn't get to finish this threat either.

"Yeah, yeah." Lance waved a lazy hand at him, an obvious dismissal of his threats. "Death, pain, torture. Whatever. You sound like a broken record. _Dios,_ even your voices sound the same after a while. I mean, I get you're working for a dude who's throwing the universe's longest tantrum but, damn, do you need to work on your creativity." The Galran soldier had started shouting in his own language and Lance took the opportunity to see if Blue was ready to intact the plan.

 _"Just a few more ticks, my brave cub. Are you sure you wish to do this? We've never tried using a new ability on this kind of scale before,"_ she asked as Lance felt the power tingling up his arms. Black chose to speak up as well.

 _"Blue is correct. You two have bonded so much closer than any other Paladin and Lion but this is also very, very dangerous for you. Are you sure you can handle this? I do not wish to see my sister's cub come to any harm,"_ Black said and Lance felt his chest grow warm from the love and worry he could feel from the two of them.

"I'm sure. It's our best shot. We can do this by working together. Red has already been looped in and she's gonna hit the fighters from the back. We've just gotta take down the soldiers on the ground. I know we can do this," Lance told them and his conviction was enough to convince them. "When I give the word, Black, shield Shiro," he instructed.

 _"Whenever you are ready, my Paladin,"_ Blue told him and Lance gave her a wink. The Galran solider had finished his rant.

"You done?" Lance raised an unimpressed brow at him. "Before you die, just remember you brought this on yourself," he told him and the Galran laughed.

"It is truly pitiful how you think you could take down someone like me!" He boasted and Lance rolled his eyes. Energy crackled at his fingertips and his teammates gasped when his eyes were completely engulfed in an icy blue.

"Famous last words," he taunted. "Now!" He shouted and the three Lions moved as one.

* * *

Blue's shield dropped completely while Black's encircled herself and her Paladin. Red was a blur, Keith's surprised swearing as she sliced through fighter after fighter could be heard over the video comms. Lance stood completely still for a moment, struggling to adjust to the amount of power at his fingertips, before raising his hands and unleashing his latest weapon; ice magic. It rolled off of him in a massive wave and surged forward, engulfing every Galran soldier and robot it met and freezing them instantly. Once the foot soldiers were taken care of, Lance aimed up and took out any fighters Red hadn't gotten too with single blasts of ice to their engines. They each crashed to the ground in a fiery explosion.

 _"They're gone. My Paladin, you have done it!"_ Blue exclaimed happily, pride saturating her voice and she slowly drained away the remaining power Lance had. The whole attack had lasted less than a minute and Lance managed a grin before he fell to his knees, chest heaving to gain as much air as possible. The Galran soldier Lance had been sassing was frozen solid, expression frozen as it morphed from victorious to shocked.

The whir of a gun being prepared to fire sounded right next to his left temple and Lance's only thought was 'of course'. He heard Shiro shout his name but the shout was drowned out by Blue growling. A large shadow descended on Lance and he felt the barest brush of Blue's mouth skim his shoulder as she grabbed the surviving Galra in her jaws and threw him away. Lance was actually impressed at how far she managed to toss him.

"Good throw," he complimented as he moved to stand. He wobbled a bit but never went back down so he called that a victory. He made a gesture to Black, too tired to do much else but she understood and lowered her shield for him. "Thanks." He flashed her a tired smile before his shoulders were grabbed by Shiro and he was being pulled in for a bone-crushing hug.

"Are you okay? What was that? Are you hurt?" Shiro asked as he held Lance at arm's length, hands still on the Blue Paladin's shoulders.

"Uh, yes, ice powers, no," Lance said in response to each question. He held a hand up to stop Shiro's next round. "I will be more than happy to explain once we are back in the Castle-Ship and the others are there and you are not putting weight on that damned leg, Shiro," Lance said, glaring at the leg in question. "They saw enough before the video-link got cut to have questions as well and I am really, really, _really_ tired so please wait until then?" He was not ashamed to admit that he begged slightly and unleashed one of his own weapons; his kitten eyes. Shiro didn't stand a chance.

"Okay. But we are talking about this," he said sternly and Lance nodded.

"Whatever you say, fearless leader. Now let's get you into Black so we can leave," he said, supporting Shiro as they both limped to the Head of Voltron.

 _"The Altean Princess has informed us she intends to land the Castle-Ship nearby. They have been successful in eliminating the remaining Galra fleets and those fighters that remain are being handled by the Blades of Mamora,"_ Black told them as Lance got Shiro up the ramp.

" _Gracias a Dios_ ," Lance breathed as he walked out of Black, leaving Shiro to get himself situated in the pilot's chair. "I was not looking forward to seeing if we would be lucky enough to slip past any remaining Galra," he admitted to both Lions as he gathered up the rubbish and loose armour pieces and helmets before limping across to Blue. She took two massive steps forward to shorten the distance for him and he spotted the purple blood of the Galra on her jaw. "That is disgusting and as soon as we get back, I am scrubbing you clean," he told her and she laughed at him. He carefully avoided the bloody smears as he clambered and sat in his chair.

All her systems were running fine and there was minimal damage to her exterior. All in all, using Blue as battering ram wasn't as damaging as he thought. He immediately linked himself to the Castle-Ship and both Allura and Coran answered the call. They were both looking at him like he had just told them the secrets of the universe.

"Lance, my boy, that was truly incredible." Coran was the one to talk first and Lance couldn't hold back his smile.

"I know, I'm awesome. Anyway, Black and Blue are ready to board when we can. Shiro needs to go into a pod no matter what he says. He has a deep laceration to his thigh. Shouldn't take more than a couple of hours in a pod to heal," Lance said to him and Coran nodded before disappearing off screen, presumably to prep the pod.

"Lance," Allura's soft voice grabbed his attention, "we need to discuss what happened today. As far as I know, you are the only Paladin who has bonded so closely to their Lion that they've been able to wield their magic," Allura told him and Lance's elation dropped as he registered her confusion. Of course she wouldn't have thought he'd be the first Paladin to have a bond this strong with their Lion. Blue strongly disagreed.

"Sure thing, Allura. As soon as Shiro is out of the pod, we'll all talk." She opened her mouth to protest but Lance cut her off. "I told Shiro that I'd talk to all of you at once about this so I don't have to repeat myself. Shiro won't need a pod for long," he told her and she could see the stubborn set of his face.

"As soon as Shiro has recovered, we will talk," Allura said and Lance nodded. "The Castle-ship will be landing in a few ticks. The other three have already boarded and are waiting in the main hangar," Allura told him and he felt Blue pass the message onto Black.

"We'll see you in a few ticks than, Princess," he said before cutting comms and feeling Blue power up her thrusters. He could see Black doing the same thing. He watched as Black rose steadily before heading for the ship's locator beacon and Blue followed suit, staying behind Black just in case she was needed.

Black had barely landed when Keith was storming up the ramp and helping a limping Shiro down it. Coran was already waiting and led the two of them out of the main hangar and to the med bay. Shiro was protesting about having to go in a pod and Coran was assuring him that it was ready just in case. The orange-haired alien knew full well Shiro was going in that pod. If Lance said he had to than he was going in it. Hunk had met Lance halfway down Blue's ramp and swept him up in a massive Hunk-hug, carrying him down the rest of the way and doing a very good job at pretending not to see the Galra blood on Blue's jaw.

"Hunky-bear!" He cried out, giddy from being spun around. "I'm fine!" He promised his best friend as he slowly placed on to his own two feet again.

"Did you really have to insult that soldier so much? He looked like he was ready to try and claw his way through the shield!" Hunk fussed as he looked Lance over. "Do I have to worry about you doing something like that when there's no shield?" He was genuinely afraid Lance would. The brunette wasn't exactly known for thinking before he said whatever was on his mind. Iverson had been on the receiving end of a few unflattering comments.

"Yes. Yes, I did and no, Blue would never let me rile a Galran up as much as that without the shield between me and them. You know that." Lance told him and Hunk sighed. "Besides, I only made those comments to buy Blue and I enough time so I could use that move." Hunk didn't get a chance to respond because a light punch hit Lance's left arm and he looked down to see honey-gold eyes glaring up at him.

"You are such an idiot," she accused him and Lance gave her an exaggerated wink. "Don't you dare pull a stunt like that again! Even if listening to you sass that Galra was the highlight of my month. And ice magic?!" She yelled and Lance and Hunk flinched back, Lance actually hiding slightly behind the Yellow pilot. He felt Yellow's amusement and Green's reassurance that her pilot wouldn't kill him. Probably.

"Yes, ice magic," Lance said and Pidge started asking questions so fast that Lance couldn't make sense of them. He slapped his hand over her mouth to stop her talking and got a death glare in response. "When Shiro is out of the pod, I'll answer everyone's questions then. Right now, I need to sleep." Lance's yawn only emphasised his point. Pidge growled. Lance removed his hand before she could bite him.

"Fine! But you had better answer ALL of my questions!" She said, pointing a finger threateningly at him. Lance held his hands up in a placating gesture as he nodded. She glared at him before her eyes fell on his bandaged arm. "Are you okay?" She asked, pointing at it.

"Oh, yeah. It's just a scratch. I took care of it back on the surface," He lied smoothly and she looked at him like she didn't believe him. He made a show of stretching his arms above his heads and groaning theatrically. "Right, I'm gonna nap. Let me know when Shiro wakes up." He shuffled out of the main hangar, promising Blue he'd clean her up as soon as he good. Blue reassured him she could wait as long as needed. Hunk and Pidge both followed Lance out and Lance could feel the worry coming off them. They made it to his room and Hunk promised to have something really yummy and spicy whipped up by the time Shiro came out of the pod. Pidge promised to wake him up with a smile full of mischief and Lance wondered if sleeping was a good idea after all.

He closed the door behind as Hunk and Pidge left before heading for his bed and stripping off the remainder of his uniform and pulling on a pair of sleep pants. He dug around under his bed for the first aid kit he kept fully stocked under there. As he pulled out the Altean equivalent of stitching supplies, he shook his head again at his own idiocy. How could he not think to put this in the kits on the Lions? He applied some of the numbing stuff to his arm and got to work, using the mirror to help him see his wound better. He felt Blue's love for him through their bond and the assurances from her that neither her nor the other Lions thought he was a failure for not adding those items to the kits.

He flushed slightly as all of the other Lions said the same thing and sent him their love through the bond and Lance could feel how honest they were being. He ended up teary-eyed as he did the last stitch and smothered the wound with healing jelly before wrapping it once again. The cool thing about the Altean stitching thread was that it changed colour as the wound healed to let the person know if the wound was infected or nearly done. He cleaned up his mess and crawled into bed before shutting his eyes to get the sleep he actually needed.

"Thank you," he whispered to all of the Lions and he felt them trying to smother him with positive emotions as he fell into a deep sleep.

 **A/N - So here's Shiro's chapter! Of course, I had to do a battle injury for Shiro. I'm a sucker for some platonic Shance. Also, I've really wanted to see one of the Paladin's get all snarky with a Galran soldier. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please leave me reviews telling me what you thought! As always, thank you to those who had already left reviews. I swear, every time I see them, I get so happy!**

 ** _mi familia -_ my family**

 ** _Dios_ \- God**

 ** _gracias a Dios -_ thank God**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 - Lance**

Lance was woken up by someone knocking on his door. He frowned as he tried to figure out who it was. The knocking was far too polite to be Keith or Pidge. Hunk would have called out his name and told him why he had to get up. Coran's knocking was more excitable. A glance at the clock showed he'd only been napping for half an hour so it wasn't Shiro. That left only one person.

"Princess Allura!" Lance greeted as he opened the door. "How can I assist our fair princess today?" He asked before yawning, covering his mouth up with his hand. Allura gave his uncovered torso a look over, frowning at all the bruises covering him.

"Are you sure you don't need a pod, Lance?" She asked, accent tinged with concern but Lance waved the concern away.

"Nah, I've already put some of that bruise spray on and I don't have any broken bones." He told her, rubbing the crusty sleep away from his eyes. "So what's up? Shiro done healing? I thought he would've been a bit longer," Lance asked

"No, no, Shiro is still in his pod. He's not due to come out for another varga," Allura assured him but she didn't look happy.

"Allura? What's wrong?" Lance asked, standing up a little straighter. Allura sighed.

"I hate to ask this of you but I can't send anyone else. A nearby planet has sent us a message. They want to join the alliance and are offering to give us supplies as a show of good faith. But we need to get them within a varga because of this planet's climate," she told him, holding out her tablet. Lance took it and looked through the data. "It's predominately a water planet but twice a day the water recedes enough to form land mass that ships can land on to do trade. I know you are tired and hurt from the last battle but..." she trailed off but Lance picked up her train of thought.

"But Blue is the only one who can navigate underwater if for some reason the supply run lasts longer than it should," Lance finished for her and she nodded.

"If we didn't need those supplies and refusing them wouldn't lose us an ally, I wouldn't be asking this of you but circumstances have forced my hand," Allura said apologetically.

"Anything to help out our beautiful princess." Lance winked before handing the tablet back. "Do we have spare under-uniforms? Mine got damaged in the last fight," he asked and her face became thoughtful.

"I do believe so. I'll have one waiting for you in Blue's hangar. I believe Hunk is mending your helmet as we speak," she told him and Lance grinned.

"Bless that beautiful Hunk of a man," he sighed, grinning. Allura rolled her eyes fondly.

"I'll go find that uniform. Thank you for doing this, Lance," she said before heading up the hall.

"You can thank me with a date!" He called as she walked away, grinning when he heard her laughter ringing back down to him. At least he put a smile back on her face so mission successful. He removed his sleep pants and looked at his knee. It was red and slightly swollen but he didn't do much more that wrap it before dressing in his normal clothes, sans his olive jacket. He lightly jogged down to Blue's hangar and found the spare uniform Allura had left for him. Slipping into a side room, he got the uniform on, tugging it lightly over his stitches before heading for his Lion. She crouched down and opened her jaws up for him. To his surprise, the purple Galran blood was gone.

"Thanks, gorgeous. Who cleaned you up?" He asked as he climbed inside and found his armour.

 _"Green's cub did. Though she did an awful lot of complaining about it,"_ Blue told him as he strapped his armour on. _"But Green told me she asked her if she'd ever eaten someone before after she was done here. Green said she thought it was great we could eat those we don't like."_ Lance laughed.

"Of course the Gremlin thinks it's awesome you guys can do that." Lance chuckled before finding his helmet. "Hunk is a beautiful genius," he said as he looked the helmet over and couldn't find a single scratch. He heard Blue hum with agreement as he settled into the pilot's chair.

He did a quick check of all of Blue's systems but there wasn't anything wrong with them. Even all of the minor warnings he'd seen after she'd started up when they prepared to join the Castle were gone. She explained that Pidge had taken care of the stuff she couldn't fix herself and Lance had smiled. He was gonna have to buy Pidge something nice as a thank you. He opened up his comm-links.

"Princess Allura? Blue and I are ready to get this party started!" He called down the line.

"Excellent. I've sent the coordinates to Blue's navigation system. By my calculations, it shouldn't take more than 15 dobashes for Blue to get there at her normal speed. You need to have the supplies loaded and confirm the alliance within half a varga. Any more time and Blue may find herself stuck. From what I understand, the surface of Planet Tra'Crolle is very, very sticky when the water starts moving back in. I'd rather not risk Blue getting stuck, if we can," Allura said as Blue's hangar doors opened and they took off, heading up into space.

"No worries, Princess. We'll do our best to avoid that situation as well," Lance promised as he helped Blue navigate. "We'll contact you once we've landed," he said before they signed off.

* * *

They made it to the planet in just over 10 dobashes and spotted a large area that had several small, dark spots that he and Blue figured were the locals and the supplies. Blue scanned the surface before she landed, just in case it wasn't solid enough but she was happy with whatever she found and touched down lightly.

"Greetings, Blue Paladin. I am Pineria, the leader of this world." The alien who spoke was slightly taller than her fellows but she still only came up to Lance's waist. She was blue skinned, a lighter shade than Blue but darker than Earth's sky. They had fine, white hair, like an otter's, which Lance figured made sense considering this was a mainly water planet, and four arms with three webbed fingers on each hand. "We on Tra'Crolle wished to thank the Paladins of Voltron for their hard work saving the universe from the likes of the Galra and we hope our gift to you is useful in that quest." She bowed slightly, causing a line of what Lance had thought were simply bumps to glitter and Lance realised they were, in fact, jewels that were the same shade as their skin unless the light hit them.

"We accept your gifts and your thanks and wish to extend our gratitude towards you for your aid in our mission." Lance bowed back, remembering Allura's lessons in diplomacy she'd insisted they'd take just in case she wasn't able to be there in person. They'd all been surprised to see how good Lance was at diplomacy until he pointed out that he'd had to bullshit his way through plenty of sticky situations so he'd gotten pretty good at it.

Now the diplomatic stuff was out of the way, Lance had Blue lower her jaw as close to the ground as possible while he and the aliens loaded Blue up with supplies. Once they started, Lance was soon talking and joking with the little aliens. They seemed fascinated with his height and lack of hair and hands and he asked questions about their world in turn. Pineria helped with loading the supplies as well, something that Lance was a little taken aback with.

"Our culture believes in sharing work. We do not let titles and other such frivolities let us believe we are superior in any way to everyone else. I will work just as much as the other members of our race until I am too old to do so. My position as our leader does not excuse me from work," she said when he'd asked her.

"I believe you and Princess Allura would get along. Despite being Altean royalty and our leader, she helps in every capacity she can," Lance told her and was slightly panicked to see the aliens face turn purple before he realised that was their blush.

"I've heard numerous rumours from traders who visit us about Princess Allura's kind and fierce personality. Thank you for the praise." She smiled up at him and Lance got to see her shark-like teeth. They were finished loading now and Lance was about to ask if their planet was willing to join the alliance when Blue's panicked voice told him to take cover.

"Get down!" He yelled at the aliens when he saw what had Blue panicked. Half a dozen Galran fighters were shooting across the horizon, heading straight for them. A large shot hit the trolley-like things they'd used to move the supplies into Blue and sharp shards of metal flew in every direction. Lance put himself in front of as many of the Tra'Crollians as he could and felt a deep, stinging pain in his side but he paid no mind to it; returning fire instead. Blue was doing her best to shoot them down with her tail laser but the fighters dodged every shot.

"Pineria!" A small cry got his attention and he turned to see one of the aliens helping a heavily bleeding Pineria to her feet.

"Blue! Keep us covered!" He yelled to his lion and got a roaring confirmation as he raced to the alien leader's side. He dug in his little emergency pack he kept clipped to his belt and pulled out a bandage. Muttering apologies, he wrapped the wound up with a little less delicacy than he normally would've before picking her up. "Where are your transports?" He asked, forgetting the name of the little boat-like things they travelled in and the aliens led him over to them. Blue continued firing as Lance carefully placed Pineria into the boat and helped the remaining aliens in. "Get home. Take care of her. I'll take care of them," he said, glancing up at the Galra. Blue had managed to take one of the ships down in a large explosion but that still left five remaining.

"Thank you, Blue Paladin," one of the aliens said, grasping his hand with two of his before placing one hand on his forehead before letting go quickly.

Lance hurried back to Blue, not giving the gesture much thought. It was getting harder to move and he realised they'd wasted more time than he'd realised. The water was coming back in and the surface was becoming sticky, just like Allura had warned it would. He and Blue needed to leave now. He'd nearly reached her when one of the Galran ships dropped something in between him and her and it exploded, throwing Lance back several metres. Blue let out a pained roar and, to Lance's horror, her eyes went dark and she collapsed.

"BLUE!" Lance yelled, scrambling to his feet and racing for his Lion. The surface of the planet was starting to get a glue-like consistency but he barely noticed it as he ran to find Blue only to find she was definitely offline.

Lance sent more shots towards the fighters, taking one down with one well aimed shot to an engine. Now there were four. Holstering his bayard, he scrambled up Blue's side, thankful for the hours he'd spent playing on her to see if he could beat his record and summoned his bayard. Shots fired from the Galran fighters dented Blue's hull and sometimes came a bit too close for comfort but Lance never flinched. He fired each shot precisely and in no time, one more fighter went down when it didn't avoid the shot in time. Three left to go.

A shot glanced his already-injured knee and he screamed as he went down. Breathing through the haze and pain, not looking at the wound, Lance forced himself into a kneeling position and fired on the fighter who'd hit him, sending it to the ground in a ball of flames.

The two remaining fighters split up and now Lance was forced back to his feet to try and keep himself as manoeuvrable as possible so neither of the fighters could get a shot at his back but he was growing tired. His knee and side were screeching at him in pain and he knew it'd only be a matter of time before that pain encompassed his thoughts completely. Judging from the warmth he could feel on his side, he was gonna guess he sustained a heavy injury in that explosion. He almost missed one of the fighters firing at him but he got his shield up just in time. The force of the hit threw him back and ended up sprawled near Blue's head. The second fighter didn't miss a beat and Lance found himself at the wrong end of a loaded weapon for the second time today, only this time, Blue couldn't save him. So he shut his eyes and waited for the inevitable.

A Lion's roar had him snapping his eyes open. That wasn't Blue who'd roared. He couldn't believe his eyes as he sat himself up on Blue's back. Red, Green, Black and Yellow were all around him. Green and Yellow had bits of the two remaining Galran fighters dangling from their jaws and were hovering in a guarding position. Red and Black were facing him, hovering precariously beside the downed Blue Lion.

"You came," Lance whispered, staring up at the Lions disbelievingly. He'd felt Blue send out a distress message when the fighters had first fired but he didn't expect to the other pilots and Lions so quickly. He felt Black chuckle slightly sheepishly.

 _"We may have not waited for our pilots to get to the hangars."_ Lance's jaw dropped as he realised what she was implying. _"Well, Shiro was only just getting out of the healing pod when Blue sent us the message and we could tell time was of the essence so we didn't wait around. I'm glad we didn't either. We cut it way too close as it was. I'm sorry we couldn't get here sooner,"_ Black said regrettably but Lance just laughed as tears rolled down his cheeks.

"You got here in time. That's all that matters," Lance said as he struggled to his feet. He could put no weight on his damaged knee.

 _"I'm giving you a lift,"_ Red said and Lance was surprised. He figured he'd have to find a way back into Blue's cockpit. He got the feeling Red was rolling her eyes at him. _"Black and Yellow are going to help Blue."_ Lance nodded shakily.

"Okay. Thank you," he said sincerely and felt all of the Lions warmth. It took him a while to get as close to Red as possible, with his leg in the condition it was, but he got there eventually by using the top of Blue's massive head as a support rail. He was sweating and heaving for breath by the time Red lowered her ramp. He looked at the incline and was tempted to just cry but he sucked it up and hobbled in. As soon as he was far enough up the ramp for her to do so safely, Red closed her jaw so he was walking on level ground. "You're a blessing to this universe and don't you let anyone tell you different," he told her as he sat on the bench. He felt her chuckle around him.

 _"Get in the pilot's chair. I don't want you hurting yourself further if I have to make a sharp turn or something,"_ Red ordered him.

"Bossy, bossy," he teased as he did as he was told. He sat and buckled himself in as best he could without jostling his side and Red backed away from Blue. Black and Yellow were immediately there and had grabbed hold of his Lion and were pulling her up. For a heart-stopping moment it looked like the surface of the planet wasn't going to release her but she came free so suddenly the two Lions almost dropped her in surprise. "Blue!" Lance gasped out, a little scared they were going to drop her.

 _"She's alright. Still shut down, though. Whatever they hit her with must've hit somewhere critical or was a new weapon. I'm sure she'll be fine,"_ Yellow soothed and Lance relaxed a little. Lance pulled his helmet off, not needing it now and felt a little less constricted with it gone and pressed his hand to his side in an effort to stop the bleeding. Keith suddenly appeared on Red's video link, looking insanely irate.

"Lance?! What the fuck are you doing in Red?! Why the fuck are all the- Lance, are you okay?" Keith's voice went from severely pissed off to nothing but concern and worry in two seconds flat once he actually saw the Blue Paladin. Soon the video feed was filled with everyone else's faces and they were trying to talk over each other. Lance's head pounded at the noise level until Shiro and Hunk noticed and told everyone to shut it at the same time.

"Lance?" Hunk's gentle voice was the only thing he could hear so Lance forced himself to look at him. "How badly hurt are you, _hermano_?" The use of the Spanish nickname made Lance want to whimper.

"Need a pod," Lance admitted before coughing suddenly into his free hand. To his horror, there was blood on his palm when he pulled it away. He must have internal bleeding. "Need a pod now," he whispered and felt Red speed up even more.

"Lance." This time it was Allura who spoke. "What happened? Did the Tra'Crollians attack you?" Lance shook his head.

"Galra. We were ambushed by six," he coughed again, "six Galra fighters. Pineria and the others had no idea. I got them to safety and Blue," he had to keep pausing to take a breath, "she took down one before they hit her. I got three of them but they had me pinned and I couldn't - couldn't get the last two. Green and Yellow ate them." He coughed up more blood. Red sent him an alert and he looked up, face breaking into a tired grin. "I can see the planet you're on. We're about to enter the - the atmosphere. Thanks, Red." He petted the closest part of her he could reach. All of the blood loss and lack of adrenaline was having an effect on him now and he was struggling to stay awake.

"Lance! You need to stay awake!" Shiro shouted through the video and Lance's eyes flew open. He hadn't even realised he'd shut them.

"Allura," he said, getting the Princess's attention, "Pineria is the leader. She was hurt pretty bad. You - you need to contact them. Make sure she's okay." She nodded her head, making her white hair bounce.

"I will, Lance. You need to stay awake. Red's nearly here," Allura told him, eyes on the monitor tracking the Red Lion. Lance glanced at the screen and was surprised to see only Allura there. Allura must've have realised. "They've all gone down to the main Lion hangar to meet you. Hunk, especially, is frantic so you need to stay awake to make sure he sees your eyes and hears your voice, alright?" She told him and he nodded.

 _"Ten ticks,"_ Red told him and Lance sighed. He could stay awake for that long. He watched as the Castle-Ship loomed close before the hangar doors opened and Red came to a gentle stop, lowering her jaw immediately to the group standing right in front of her.

"Lance!" He heard Hunk cry as he bolted up the ramp in front of everyone.

"I'm okay, _hermano_." He coughed just as Hunk reached him. He was unconscious by the time Hunk had him out of Red's harness.

* * *

The first thing he felt was cold. The first thing he heard was the familiar hiss of a cryopod opening. The first thing he saw when he blinked his eyes open was everyone curled up on the floor, deep asleep. Coran and Allura were curled up together, as were Shiro and Keith. Pidge was using Hunk as a full-body bed. Lance smiled at the sight before he felt Blue's questioning presence. His girl was awake. He carefully picked his way through the blanket-wrapped bodies and grabbed a spare one for himself before making his way to the main hangar.

All five Lions were in the bay, watching him as he entered the door and looked up at them. He made a beeline for Blue, who had shifted into a lying down position to make it easier for him to pat her muzzle. The other four had gathered as closely as they could and Lance took their appearance in. Black looked a lot better, which means he was out long enough for her and Blue to have been fixed. Green and Yellow had both moved away from the scraps of fighters they'd brought back and Red looked fine as well.

"Blue, are you okay now? How long was I out for? Did Allura contact Tra'Crolle?" He asked and Blue chuckled at him.

 _"My cub, I am fine. Yellow and Green's Paladins made sure of that. You were out for nearly four of your earth days. I am not sure about Allura contacting anyone,"_ Blue told him and Lance baulked at that. Four days? That was a long time. He shook his head to get rid of that thought. _"Are you truly well, my pilot?"_ Blue asked and Lance took stock of himself.

"Bit achy, tired and hungry but yes, I'm fine." He smiled at her before turning to Red. "Thanks to Red getting me back here so quickly." He felt Red's version of a blush at the thanks and Blue lifted her head up to knock her cheek gently against hers in thanks. "And thanks to everyone for coming to save us when they did." He made sure they all felt his gratitude and love through the bonds they had to each other.

It was a move that had taken a while for him to get control over once he realised they could feel everything he did as each Lion had initiated their bond with him. Because of this, they had felt when he'd had bad days and he'd had a lot of them. They kept their promise of not telling their pilots, albeit reluctantly, but had helped Lance through them themselves; something that had resulted in fewer bad days. He yawned suddenly and Blue huffed before opening her jaw.

 _"Come, my blue cub. Get some rest,"_ she ordered gently. Lance was happy to follow those orders and murmured 'goodnights' to each Lion as he climbed up Blue's ramp and into the little alcove he'd decked out as a bed for extra-long missions. He sighed gratefully as he nuzzled into the soft blankets and pillows and fell asleep to Blue's purring.

* * *

Next thing he knows, he's tumbling out of his blanket nest because Blue is _growling_. His Lion _never_ growls unless she's really annoyed or someone is threatening Lance in front of her. He slapped his thigh for his bayard automatically before his brain catches up to him and, oh yeah, he's camping in Blue after spending four days in a cryopod after an ambush by the Galra. He asks Blue what's up but she ignores him which is just rude until he hears muffled voices outside of his Lion. He heads into the cockpit to look out the window and see the rest of the Paladins and the two Alteans standing there, Keith yelling something at Blue.

"Stop yelling at my Lion!" He shouts as soon as Blue lowers her ramp at his request. He glares at Keith as he makes his way down, still wrapped up in the blanket he pinched from the medical bay. Blue shuts her ramp up with a huff and Lances gives her a consoling pat.

 _"I tried to make them leave so you could get more sleep,"_ Blue whined apologetically.

"Aw, thank you, my main girl. But don't worry! I feel good! I don't think I would've slept much longer anyway," he told her, trying to lessen her guilt. The four other Lions were still nearby and were watching the scene with some mild amusement. "Don't act so amused by this," he scolded the other Lions before facing his team, ready to chew Keith out for yelling at Blue. His precious girl didn't deserve that. Except he was faced with looks from mildly shocked to completely shocked on everyone except Shiro; he just looked like he'd been proven right about something. "What?" He asked, slightly annoyed and a little off put.

"Who are you getting up?" Shiro asked and Lance gave him a look.

"The Lions. Except for Blue. Because she behaves herself," he added with a pointed look at the other four. Black made a protesting noise. "Black is behaving herself too. So I'm getting up the other three. Sorry, Black," he said, giving said Lion a sheepish grin.

"Are you saying you can talk to, not only Blue, but all of the Lions?" Pidge asked, looking up at him with awe and a little suspicion.

"Yes," Lance said exasperatedly. Why was everyone asking this? It's not like they couldn't talk to the Lions themselves! Did they really think he wouldn't be able to as well? Did they think that low of his place on this team? His stomach suddenly grumbled, effectively pulling him out of that train of thought and having Hunk grab him by the arm and death-glaring anyone who tried to ask Lance anything after Hunk's declaration that he needed food first.

Twenty dobashes later, Lance had eaten his fill of Hunk's space version of tacos (something that had Lance nearly burst into tears over) and was waiting for the others to finish when he remembered something Blue hadn't been able to answer.

"Allura, did you contact Tra'Crolle and find out anything?" He asked suddenly, causing everyone to look at him, startled by his outburst.

"I did make contact about two quintets after you were put in the pod," Allura told him, gracefully folding her hands into her lap. "They wanted to personally thank you for your help in aiding Pineria and Tra'Crolle. The alien I spoke to said that your quick thinking and medical aid had bought her enough time to be seen by their doctors. She is expected to make a full recovery and has expressed her wish to see you once you are able to," Allura told him and he sighed, relief flooding through his body.

" _Gracias a Dios_ ," he whispered. "I'm glad she's alright. She was hurt pretty bad." He felt Blue's happiness at the good news as well.

"That's all well and good and I'm glad the alien is going to make it but can you get on topic now?" Pidge asked before pointing a finger at Lance. "You can talk to the Lions? All of them?" She demanded.

"Yes! For the last freaking time, I can talk to all of the Lions! Why are you so surprised?!" Lance nearly shouted. Hunk placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

"Because," Shiro was the one to speak up, "none of us can." That threw Lance.

"None of you can talk to any of the Lions?" He finally asked, unwilling to believe it. He was so certain he was the last one to be able to talk to all of the Lions. That's why he'd never brought it up.

"Well, I can talk to Black and I'm assuming the others can talk to their Lion." Three heads nodded. "But we can't talk to each other's Lions." Lance froze, feeling like half of life was being re-written.

"Lance?" Hunk shook his friends shoulder gently and those blue eyes blinked up at him. "Why are you so surprised we can't? Didn't Yellow or the other Lions tell you?" He asked and Lance shook his head.

"No and I never asked. I kinda figured all of you could talk to them before I could," Lance admitted and Hunk frowned.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked but Lance just shrugged a shoulder. Hunk wanted to growl and demand answers; he knew what this behaviour meant, after all. He could see the concern in at least three pairs of eyes.

"How long have you been able to talk to them for, my boy?" Coran asked, voice filled with cheer and enthusiasm. Lance couldn't help but smile back in response to orange alien's grin.

"Black was the last one to speak to me and she contacted me maybe two months after we found Blue," Lance said and Coran's eyes sparkled.

"Do you know that the only other Paladin who was able to speak to all five Lions was King Alfor himself?" Lance looked up in surprise and Coran nodded, twiddling his moustache. "Yup. He always said it was because he was the one who designed them but I suspected differently. You've always reminded me of a young Alfor," Coran said and Lance blushed. You didn't need to spend long in the Altean's company to know how highly he regarded King Alfor.

"What I'd like to know more about is your apparent ability to use ice magic," Allura asked eagerly, eyes shining bright with curiousity.

"Yeah, what's that about?" Keith asked gruffly and Lance glared at him before looking back at Allura. Call him petty but he still wasn't over Keith's comments after Shiro crashed; no matter how right he was.

"What do you want to know, Princess?" Lance asked, emphasising Allura's title. Shiro frowned at that before glancing at Keith and seeing his 'I'm guilty about something but I'm gonna pretend I'm just annoyed at their attitude' expression. Shiro needed to get to the bottom of this so he tapped Keith on the shoulder and gestured they go out of the room. Lance pretended not to see them leave and buried the hurt he felt.

"Oh, when did it start?" Allura asked, a little surprised at being offered the opportunity to ask questions.

"Three weeks ago," Lance said. "I was in Blue's hangar, washing her clean after that dust planet and she said she wanted to try something but she was afraid I'd get hurt if it went wrong. I told her I trusted her completely and I felt something in our bond change and the next thing I knew, there was ice spreading from where my hand was on her leg. I nearly fell off her leg in surprise." He laughed a little.

"Then what happened?" Allura asked, sounding very much like one of his little sisters when he used to read them exciting bedtime stories.

"We practised. At first it was just to get me used to the feeling then me using it a little before building up how long we could maintain the link and finally how far apart we could be while still linked. What I did to those Galra; that was the biggest attack I've ever done. I've only ever managed to freeze a gladiator bot before," Lance told her and her eyes widened.

"You managed to wipe out dozens of Galrans plus a few fighters with a weapon you'd only been training with for three weeks?" She asked and Lance nodded. "Lance, that's incredible." Lance flushed and tried to hide his face, mumbling something.

"What was that, man?" Hunk laughed, smiling like an idiot at Lance's reaction. A flustered Lance was pretty frickin' adorable.

"It's not that incredible," Lance mumbled and Hunk knew it was said partly to try and stop being flustered but mostly because Lance truly believed that.

"Lance, you are the only Paladin in existence to be able to use your Lion's element as a weapon and you're only second to King Alfor in just being able to talk to all of them! That's definitely incredible! And, d'you know what?" Hunk asked as he nudged Lance's shoulder slightly. Lance looked up at him, cheeks still furiously red. "I'm not even surprised that you're able to do this."

"Me neither," Pidge spoke up. "Now that I'm over the fact that it's possible to talk to every Lion and use your own Lions powers, I'm not surprised that you're the first paladin both things have happened too."

"I had a niggling feeling you were able to talk to all of the Lions for a while. You've often made off-handed comments about their preferences or something they've said whenever we've spent time working together," Coran told him and Lance looked at him surprised. He hadn't realised he'd done that. Coran looked at him knowingly. "You didn't seem to realise that you were talking about them so I didn't mention anything because I wanted you to tell us about this accomplishment."

"My father never mentioned to me the possibility of wielding your Lions magic. I have a feeling that, despite him being a Paladin and the person who created the Lions, even he didn't know about this," Allura said, looking down at her hands before meeting Lance's eyes. "I, too, am not surprised that you are the first Paladin to unlock that level of bonding. You and Blue, your bond is the strongest I've ever witnessed between a Lion and any Paladin, past or present. Those who doubt your place as a Paladin of Voltron and the Blue Lion's pilot are incredibly mistaken. You have always been worthy of being here and I am truly sorry if we've ever, if _I_ have ever, made you feel like you weren't." There were no stopping the tears from falling when Lance heard those words and he quickly buried his face in Hunk's shoulder. Hunk wrapped him up in a big hug, pulling him out of his seat at the table and into his lap as he did so. Lance didn't seem to mind.

A small weight climbed into Lance's lap and hugged him around his waist. Once Lance had calmed down a little, he moved one arm from around Hunk's neck and ruffled Pidge's hair slightly, making the Green Paladin look up at him and scowl. Allura cleared her throat, causing the three of them to look up at the Alteans.

"I apologise, Lance. I did not mean to upset you with my words." She sounded sincerely sorry and Lance made a distressed noise in the back of his throat.

"Allura, I'm not upset," he told her before giving her a smile. "I'm happy." Allura's brow creased with confusion.

"I do not understand. You're crying?" She asked and Lance hurriedly wiped any remaining tears off.

"Yeah, humans are weird that way," Lance told her and she sighed.

"So it seems," she sighed and Lance's laugh was joined by Pidge and Hunk's. Their laughter being broken by Lance yawning had Coran snapping into action.

"Number 3 needs sleep. Let's go, my boy," Coran ordered, clapping his together before staring the three of them down. Lance was only released after one last hug from Hunk and Pidge. Coran grabbed him just under his elbow and escorted him out of the dining room. "We're going to the med bay first. You came out of the pod a little earlier than expected and your pyjamas are there as well," Coran explained when Lance questioned the direction.

* * *

The medical check didn't take too long. Coran declared Lance to be in perfect health, aside from his body needing rest, and gave Lance some privacy to get changed into his soft, blue pyjamas.

"There is something I wanted to ask you. Not related to the Lions or anything like that," Coran assured him when he saw Lance's apprehensive expression.

"Oh. Well, shoot," Lance told him and waited expectantly.

"Who stitched that cut on your arm for you?" Coran asked, nodding once at said arm and Lance looked surprised; having not expected the question to be that.

"I did," Lance answered honestly. "You were busy with Shiro and I wanted to sleep so I took care of it," Lance explained, shrugging a shoulder. "It's no big deal." He said when he spotted the look on Coran's face. "It's not the first time I've had to stitch myself up; here or back home. I just didn't want to bother you when you were busy." Coran's face made a myriad of expressions.

"Well, you don't have to do that anymore. I'd like you to come find me if you're hurt. It doesn't matter if I'm asleep or you think I'm busy. Promise me you'll come to me for help. With anything," Coran pleaded slightly and Lance couldn't do anything except nod.

"I promise, Coran," Lance swore and Coran nodded, happy with the promise.

"Good. Now, let's get you to bed. You need to sleep some more," Coran told him, waving him out of the med bay and escorting him to his room. "Get some rest," Coran said once they reached his room.

"Thanks, Coran," Lance said with a tired smile and Coran beamed at him.

"Anytime, my boy." Lance shut his door behind him as Coran headed down the hallway.

* * *

His bed looked extremely welcoming but he was beyond due a shower so that's where he headed first. Four days in a cryopod had done his hair and skin no favours. He decided to forgo his night-time mask because he had a feeling there'd be no way he'd be up in time to wash it off. He got back into his pj pants and was about to throw on his shirt when there was a loud yet unsure knock on his door. Shrugging his shirt on, he opened the door up and found Keith and Shiro standing on the other side.

"Can I help you two with something?" He asked a little confused though in his defence, he hadn't been expecting them outside of his door. Keith looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there and Shiro looked determined.

"Can we come in? We'd like to talk to you about something," Shiro asked, metal prosthetic planted firmly on Keith's shoulder. Lance wanted to tell them to wait until after he'd slept but he was curious about what they wanted to know so badly they couldn't have stayed and asked at the table. Lance opened the door up wider as permission and Shiro led Keith through it. "Thanks."

"No worries," Lance said as he shut the door and sat on his bed. "You can sit wherever you want." He waved a hand around his room. Keith stole the only chair in the place but Shiro didn't seem to mind sitting next to Lance so that Lance was in between Shiro and Keith. "So what's up?" He asked, shuffling so he was leaning against the wall. He pulled his legs up so he could rest his chin on his knees and waited as Shiro gave Keith a look and Keith sighed.

"Look, I'm not – not good at this sort of thing," Keith started saying, not looking at Lance or Shiro, "and this is probably not going to be as good as what you deserve but I'm sorry for what I said after Shiro and Black crashed. I was worried about Shiro and I took it out on you and I'm sorry," Keith rushed the last sentence out. Shiro looked proud of him but Lance looked thoroughly confused.

"You don't have to apologise for that," he said, sounding like he couldn't believe he actually had to point that out. Both Shiro and Keith frowned at him.

"What the fuck? Of course I do! What I said was completely-" Keith started but Lance cut him off.

"True. What you said was true. If I had had kept my eyes open, Shiro wouldn't have had to take that shot for me. I wouldn't have had to use Blue like that and Shiro and Black wouldn't have been injured," Lance said like it was the most logical thing ever.

"Lance, do you even know where that shot would've hit you if I hadn't intervened?" Shiro asked, holding a hand up to quell Keith's urge to jump up and shake Lance. Lance shook his head. "That shot would've hit Blue in the back of her head." Lance's face paled considerably as he realised the implications to his words.

"Wh-what?" His voice shook.

"If I hadn't had taken that shot for you, you'd probably be dead. So I don't regret my actions and I'd do the same thing over and over again, if I had to." Shiro grabbed his shoulders and squeezed. "Plus, using Blue to throw Black off course like you did was an ingenious move. I don't know about Black, but I really like not hitting water hard enough to break into little pieces." He gave Lance a lop-sided grin.

 _"He's right. I really do enjoy being in one piece,"_ Black interjected and Lance's chuckle was a little watery, to his shame. He tried to discretely wipe his eyes but knew he'd failed. Keith cleared his throat awkwardly and Lance looked at him.

"What I said to you was... cruel. I saw Shiro go down and I was scared and I took it out on you. It's not an excuse but it's why I said what I said. Red was so mad at me afterwards. She wouldn't talk to me until I was scrubbing her cockpit clean after they rescued you." Lance went to open his mouth to apologise for that but Keith barrelled on. "I didn't really get why she was so angry until Shiro explained it to me. No one except Shiro saw that shot until it was fired. I am really sorry." His purple eyes were certainly apologetic and Lance reached over and grabbed one of his hands and gave it a squeeze.

"I get it. Shiro's your family. I've done and said some questionable things to people who've hurt my family. So I get it," Lance said sincerely, giving him an honest smile. He yelped a little when he felt himself being pulled backwards, his grip on Keith ensuring the raven-haired teen followed him as he ended up practically in Shiro's lap, the man's arms wrapped tightly around him. Keith ended up sprawled across Lance's own legs and lap and looked utterly bewildered about it.

"So you believe me when I say what happened isn't your fault and you shouldn't beat yourself up and you believe Keith is truly sorry?" Shiro asked once Lance had adjusted and was hugging him back, one hand still gripping Keith's. He asked the question into Lance's hair and the Cuban practically melted into the hug. Keith wiggled himself up and Shiro adjusted himself so he was hugging both of them.

"Yeah. Thanks, guys," he whispered, all of his exhaustion from the cryopod and the emotional rollercoaster he'd been on since waking up finally caught up on him and he yawned before snuggling further into Shiro's chest. The last thought he had before he drifts off to sleep is how nice it is to have a space family as crazy and loving as his Earth one.

 **A/N - So here's Lance part 1! This will be a short A/N because the second part will be posted right away. Thanks for reading this chapter! Please let me know what you think before moving onto the next part and thank you to everyone who has already reviewed!**

 ** _hermano -_ brother**

 ** _gracias a Dios_ \- thank God**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8 - Lance Part 2**

Neither Shiro nor Keith moved so much as a muscle until Shiro was convinced Lance was in a deep enough sleep that he wouldn't be awoken when they shifted. It took nearly ten minutes before Shiro carefully manoeuvred himself from underneath the Blue Paladin and helped Keith detangle himself from Lance's rather tight grip. He pulled the blankets up to cover Lance better before motioning to Keith to go, switching the light off and closing the door as he left. Only once the door had shut did either of them speak.

"We need to go and talk to the others about this," Shiro said before hurrying down the hallway to the dining room, Keith dutifully following behind. "This is much bigger than we realised." Keith frowned as he jogged lightly to keep up.

"What do you mean? He said he believed us," Keith reminded him and Shiro slowed down so he could explain.

"He may have said that but I'm almost certain he only said it so we wouldn't say anything more on the matter. I don't think Lance believes us. I'm sure he knows you're sorry and that you didn't mean to say what you said but I'm fairly certain he still believes you actually think that," Shiro told him and Keith looked confused.

"But I don't really think that. I don't think he's useless or a bad pilot or that he doesn't pay attention all the time. I really don't!" He said and Shiro placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

"I know that but I don't think Lance knows that's the truth. Now that I'm actually thinking about this, I don't remember a time where anyone singled out Lance to tell him he did good. If he ever got praised, it was as part of the group. I really need to talk to Hunk about this. He's the only one of us who knows Lance the best and can help us try and convince Lance he's worth so much to this team," Shiro sighed. He hated the fact that they've been out here for months working as a team and this issue hasn't made itself known until now. This was the sort of thing that could destroy Voltron and, worse of all, it could destroy Lance.

 _"It's not your fault you didn't notice until now. Lance is very good at hiding his true feelings behind the mask of a jokester. He's even fooled us many a time and we can sense his feelings,"_ Black spoke in his mind and Shiro grimaced. How the hell did Lance get so good at putting up a front that he managed to fool magic, sentient Lions? _"I wish I had said something sooner to you. Lance asked us not to say anything to our pilots though. He said he didn't want to burden the team and that he'd be fine after a little while,"_ Black said mournfully and Shiro could feel her regret and guilt.

"You said so yourself; he's very good at hiding his true feelings. Don't blame yourself for this. I should've noticed earlier. I've had a feeling something wasn't right for a while but I never did anything about it," Shiro told her and felt Black's disapproval at his self-blame.

 _"If I'm not allowed to blame myself than neither are you. No single person or Lion is to blame for not realising the true extent of Lance's feelings. We need to focus on how we are going to fix this,"_ she told him resolutely and Shiro smiled. He glanced at Keith to share his conversation with Black only to find Keith spacing out a little; a sure sign he was talking to Red. He hoped the Red Lion was telling Keith something similar to what Black had said.

* * *

They made it back to the dining room to find everyone else gone. Shiro shrugged at Keith's confused look before heading for the main lounge room/after missions resting area. Everyone was in their favourite spot and looked up at their arrival. The team had waited until they'd sat down before Hunk started asking questions.

"Where were you two?" He asked, mouth set in a firm line, displeased they'd left while Lance was talking. He'd seen how that had made his best friend feel and he wasn't happy about it.

"Keith was bringing me up to speed on what had happened after Black and I crashed. Then we went to talk to Lance," Shiro told them and Hunk narrowed his eyes at Keith.

"I told him I was sorry. Now I'm telling you the same thing. I'm sorry about my behaviour earlier. Lance didn't deserve it and neither did you guys," Keith told them and they could all hear the regret in his voice. Hunk's attitude immediately changed.

"No, he didn't and we didn't but thank you for apologising," Hunk said, placing one of his large hands on Keith's arm. Shiro gave them both a proud smile before turning serious.

"There's something I think you all should be made aware of," he said. Hunk's face fell miserably, as did Coran's. "Hunk, Coran, from the looks on your faces, I think you know what I'm talking about," he guessed. To their surprise, Coran was the first of the two to speak.

"I don't think Number 3 trusts us," Coran said, voice sad. Shiro wasn't only one to raise their eyebrows in surprise.

"What do you mean, Coran? If Lance didn't trust his fellow Paladins, at the very least, they would not be able to form Voltron. You know this," Allura chided gently. Coran shook his head.

"I think you misunderstand me, Allura. I know Lance trusts us. I just don't think he trusts _in_ us. I found out today that he has been providing his own medical aid rather than coming to me or anyone else. He's even been stitching his own wounds up!" Coran explained and four out of the five listening looked shocked.

"Coran, you're wrong. It's not that Lance doesn't trust us to help him; he thinks that if he asks us for help, we'll think he's weak. He doesn't want to be perceived as a burden to anyone and asking for help with things he can deal with himself, whether he should or not, is something he thinks would make him a burden," Hunk told them.

"Hunk, I think you need to explain Lance like you did for me back at the Garrison," Pidge said, pushing her glasses up onto her face a little more. Hunk sighed.

"Look, Lance is cocky and loud and obnoxious and a really bad flirt but that's all just an act, as you're probably starting to realise. He grew up in a really supportive and loving household where he never went a day without someone telling him how good he did something or how much they loved him or appreciated his help. He could go to any family member and ask for help with anything and was never worried about being laughed at. He could do anything he wanted without being afraid he was going to be teased for it." Hunk was painting a wonderful picture of what every child's home life should have been like and they were enraptured by what he was saying. "A lot of things changed when his family moved from Cuba to America," Hunk sighed.

"What happened?" Allura asked when it seemed no one else would.

"Lance's first language isn't English so, as well as a massive culture shock and struggling to adapt to a new life, he had to learn English as quickly as possible. He and his siblings only had a month between the move and starting school to learn as much as they could. School was no longer a place filled with his friends and various family members; it was a place he was bullied mercilessly for everything from his accent and choppy English to what he wore or ate for lunch. His older siblings also coped the same abuse but his younger siblings were, thankfully, spared that experience, for the most part. His older siblings knew what was happening and tried to shield him as much as they could but they couldn't do much," Hunk said, voice subdued.

"It took his parents months to realise what was happening at that school because Lance and his siblings were so good at hiding it from them. They moved them out of that school and into another one where things were a little easier since they could speak English almost fluently but Lance was still bullied and didn't make any real friends until high school when he met me. It took months for him to realise I wasn't going anywhere and even longer before I met his family. His mum nearly adopted me on the spot." Hunk grinned before going serious again.

"After he realised I really wanted to be his friend, the Lance he was in Cuba came back. We spent most nights at his place or mine and he became his normal self again around me and our families. It took a while before that confident Lance made an appearance at school and after a while, we made a few more friends. He made me join him in all of the crazy stuff he wanted to do and I tried to help him see he didn't have to hide himself and his interests from everyone," Hunk told them.

"You're a really good person and a good friend, Hunk. Not many people would have stuck by someone going through so much," Shiro told him and Hunk nodded before continuing at Pidge's urging.

"Lance told me about his dream about going to the Garrison to become a fighter pilot. When one of our teacher's asked us what we wanted to after graduation and he told everyone, it was around the same time as you were making headlines, Shiro," Hunk said and Shiro blinked, unsure of where this was going. "Everyone assumed Lance was going to the Garrison because of you because he admired you, he still does, but that wasn't his real reason. One of Lance's uncles back in Cuba was a pilot for their air force. He and Lance were always close, much closer than anyone else in their family. It nearly killed Lance when he was told about his death. His fighter jet had suffered a mechanical malfunction while on a training mission and his ejection seat wouldn't release. His family had scraped every cent they had to send Lance back to Cuba for his funeral and when he'd come back and started attending school again, I asked if he still wanted to be a fighter pilot at the Garrison. When he said yes, I told him good because I'd already applied so he'd have a good mechanic he could trust." Hunk took a shuddering breath before continuing. He knew they needed to know this stuff to understand Lance now but it was still hard to talk about his best friend like this.

"We got accepted at the Garrison and Lance took a blow when he was found out he'd only made cargo pilot but he didn't let it show for long. Pidge was teamed up with us by then and Lance was focusing all of his energy of either being the top of the class or getting Pidge to open up to us with his ridiculous team-bonding ideas. Said we needed to be able to trust each other in every situation, no matter how stupid, so we would be the best team the Garrison had seen." Pidge was giggling at the memories it bought up for her and the others were intrigued by the reaction. "I thought Lance would be more upset about only making cargo but he told me he was just going to make himself the best cargo pilot they'd seen so if a position as a fighter pilot opened, they'd be more likely to choose him. When Keith dropped out, Lance was offered the spot and he nearly lost it again when he refused to let them assign him another team. He fought to have me and Pidge as his crew and eventually he told them they could offer the spot to another pilot if we weren't kept together."

"Why did they wish to separate you? Surely it would have more sense to keep together a team who were working well." Allura asked, confused once again by humans.

"You remember what I was like when I first got here? Getting motion sick in Blue?" Hunk asked and Allura nodded.

"Of course. You've come so far from that." She beamed at him and he blushed a little.

"Thanks. Well, they thought my, uh, inability to fly through a simulation without throwing up was holding Lance back. Boy, did they regret saying that to his face. I heard so many cuss words in each language Lance speaks that day. It was glorious," Hunk sighed, wistfully wishing once more that he could have recorded that moment.

"They didn't like my attitude. They thought having someone on a team who wouldn't answer simple personal questions was a bad idea. Asked Lance how he would be able to trust me in life or death situations if I wouldn't tell him about my personal life. He told them he didn't need to know what sort of cookies my favourite were to know I was good person and that he could trust me," Pidge said, cheeks turning red as she remembered how much that had meant to her at the time. "It was the nicest way I've heard someone tell a superior officer to fuck off while defending someone else."

"Language!" Shiro scolded her half-heartedly. She stuck her tongue out a him.

"So this Garrison kept you three together?" Coran asked.

"Yup. They didn't have a choice when Lance gave his ultimatum and one of the people who were in charge of the whole school wanted Lance in the fighter program. They told Iverson to keep us together. So we were pulled out of cargo and thrown into fighter the next day. Lance struggled a lot there though," Hunk revealed. "We didn't have any experience with the fighter jets whereas everyone else had at least a year on us and no one provided us with extra training or help to get up to speed. We booked the simulator as much as we could but it was never enough. It didn't help that Iverson made it his personal mission to remind Lance every single day that the only reason he was even in the fighter program was because Keith dropped out and he pointed out each mistake Lance made, no matter how small, and tore him a new one every time instead of just telling him what he did wrong and how to do it better next time." Pidge actually snarled at the mention of Iverson.

"This Iverson, he was your instructor?" Hunk nodded at Allura's question. "When we get to Earth, he and I will have _words_ ," she promised icily, a malicious glint in her eye. Hunk and Pidge secretly swore they'd be there to witness that.

"Forgive me but I don't really see what this has to do with Lance now?" Coran asked apologetically.

"It's okay," Hunk assured the Altean. "All of that has to do with why Lance is like he is now. You guys never realised how much he was struggling, even you Pidge, because Lance has had so much practise at hiding behind his mask. The only reason I know is because I've known him the longest and he is my brother in every way except blood," Hunk explained, struggling to figure out how to word what he was trying to say so everyone could understand what he was talking about. "Lance sees himself as the weakest link in every situation. If you put him in a team and had them work together then asked who they thought needed more training or help or whatever, Lance would say himself. He's spent most of his life being told he wasn't worth anything by nearly everyone except his family and he's bought into that. His mum and sibling and I can tell him those people are wrong every second of every day until we're dead and he wouldn't believe us because he thinks it's basically our job to say those sorts of things."

"But he's always so confident," Allura sounded so lost and Hunk felt for her.

"I know. He's had a lot of practise at coming across that way. He figured out at an early age that people would notice him if he was loud and cocky. If he was always there with a bad pick up line or joke, he could make someone laugh or smile if they weren't happy. He's always the first person to volunteer for any sort of work so he can prove he's useful. He'll talk himself up over some insignificant win, like beating one of us to the pool, but he'll be dismissive or flustered if we compliment or thank him for something like when he saved Coran from that bomb. He doesn't know how to deal with genuine compliments because he just doesn't get them and he thinks he doesn't get them because he's not worth it. He throws himself in front of us when we're fighting against the Galra or whoever and takes whatever blows were aimed for us because he honestly believes we don't need him."

"But that's not true!" Allura exclaims and Hunk nodded.

"I know but do we ever really tell him that? Have any of us paid him any sort of praise for his own successes? Have any of us taken him aside and told him how proud we are of him and how thankful we are to have him here?" He asked and watched as realisation dawned on everyone.

"I know I already said this but I spoke to him when I gave him his post-pod check-up. I'd noticed when I changed him into a cryo-suit that his arm had been stitched, which I had to undo so the pod could heal it properly, and when I asked who'd stitched him up, he said he'd done it himself because he wished not to burden the team any more than he already did. I told him he wasn't one but I do not think he believed me," Coran sighed and Hunk's face crumpled a little at the news.

"He was getting better at asking others for medical help before the Garrison," Hunk sighed. "When his mum taught him basic medical first aid stuff, he took it upon himself to help his siblings and family members so his mum didn't have to. When he saw how much this helped her, he took on himself to do what he could to help her out. He basically raised his younger sisters and made sure his older siblings were alright. Like you can imagine, this got a lot harder when they moved to America but Lance kept helping out where he could. Eventually, his mum sat him down after they moved schools and asked him to come to her or his father if he was getting hurt so they could help. So he did. He stopped keeping everything to himself and asked for help rather than keeping it to himself so his parents wouldn't get worried. But Iverson ruined that progress, making Lance think that him asking for help was obvious proof he wasn't good enough for the fighter program. I tried to tell him to go get help when he was hurt or at least come to me but he always told me he was fine, he could handle it himself and I couldn't help much with some of the injuries since I was very, very squeamish," Hunk admitted; voice filled with shame. Shiro was already there to rub his back.

"There is nothing wrong with that. Despite your aversion to blood and whatnot, you still offered to help. That proves what an amazing person and friend you are," Shiro told him honestly.

"Thanks, Shiro." Hunk smiled up at him before continuing. "Despite my best efforts, Lance was still trying to do everything himself. He was trying to catch up with the rest of the fighters, prove Iverson wrong, put on a good enough act so people around us wouldn't realise he was hurting and put on a brilliant act whenever his family called to video chat with him. Then we found Blue and came here and, no offense, Allura, but you were worse than Iverson in some ways. I know," he gave her an apologetic look when she opened her mouth, "you were doing your best and you didn't have any clue about humans and what our limits were and you have certainly improved in leaps and bounds in understanding us but Lance still thinks about what your expectations were in the start and is still trying to reach them. So now he's trying to be the best Blue Paladin he can while helping all of us with everything from chores to our own problems because, in his mind, it's the only way he can prove he's worth keeping around. In his mind, the second that we find all of those flaws in his mask and see what's truly under there, we won't like or want him around anymore so he's doing his best to make sure we don't see anything other than the cocky, flirty Blue Paladin who can out-shoot all of us and is always there with a joke or a helping hand."

"He's so stupid!" Keith proclaimed, loudly. "Why would we think less of him just because he's having a bad day? We're human! That's what happens sometimes! He doesn't judge us for them so why would we judge him?" He demanded to know. Hunk just shook his head.

"He knows, deep down, that his brain is twisting all of his thoughts around in his head and that we wouldn't care that he has bad days, that we would help him through them and still love him the same but his brain takes that thought and tells him that we won't care in any way. That we'll turn around and tell him 'so what? Go annoy someone else with your insignificant issues. I don't care'. And he believes it so he won't reach out to you guys and only sometimes reaches out to me." Everyone was completely silent and the atmosphere in the room was sombre and serious.

"Hunk?" Shiro's voice broke the Yellow Paladin out of his little guilt fest. He was Lance's best friend, his _hermano_ , and he missed just how bad a place Lance was in. Some best friend.

"Yeah, Shiro?" He replied, a little sullenly.

"How do we fix this? How do we make it so Lance feels like he can come to us about anything and feels safe enough to tell us the truth about how he is and feeling?" He asked and Hunk let out a deep sigh as he thought.

"Firstly, I know some of you just want to shower him in affection and praises all day now, " he glanced at Coran and Shiro knowingly, "but that will just make things worse. You'll confuse him and put him on edge because he'll think you're overcompensating for something or you're being extra nice because you're gonna kick him out of Voltron. Saying that, praise him when you notice him doing something well. If he makes an unbelievable shot, tell him. If he helps with the chores, thank him. If he patches you up, tell him you appreciate it. Listen when he offers advice because, no matter how much he or we joke about it, Lance isn't stupid. He's very smart, just in different areas to me and Pidge. Don't just blow him off when you're having a bad day. Even I'm not innocent of that. If he seeks you out for something but you don't want to hang out or whatever because you're not in a good headspace, tell him that. He'll understand and won't judge you and won't think you're just blowing him off because it's him," he told them and wanted to laugh because Keith, Allura and Coran looked like they wanted to take notes.

"What about if we think he's hurt or having a bad day?" Allura asked and Hunk felt a massive amount of pride and love for her in that moment.

"If you think he's hurt and is hiding it, ask him directly. If he denies it and you still think he's lying, make eye contact and stare him down. If he really is hiding something, he'll crack and tell you. If he isn't, he'll look at you like you've gone crazy," Hunk told them. "If you think he's having a bad day, ask. He'll deny it," he warned, "but remind him he can talk to you if he needs to. If you think he's having a bad day and you're worried you can't help, come and find me or someone you think can help. If you find him sitting by himself and looking sad, sit next to him. Ask if he's alright but don't push him to tell you. If he wants to tell you, he will but it might take him a while. My best advice for that sort of situation is to just remind him you're there, maybe give him a hug or touch him somewhere so he knows you're there and willing to listen to him."

"Is there anything else you can think of that will help?" Shiro asked and Hunk thought for a few moments.

"Don't bully him into telling you something. If you want to know, ask him. He'll tell you or he won't and you need to respect that. Usually he'll come back to you after a little while and tell you what you wanted to know. Also, if he asks about something, like how something works, educate him; don't belittle him," Hunk advised and Pidge shifted guiltily.

"That's something I was really bad at. Lance is a very curious person and he keeps trying to educate himself by learning about different things. I told him to go away so many times at the Garrison that I nearly destroyed that part of him. That's when Hunk sat me down and told me what he told you," Pidge told them, voice still guilt-ridden over that.

"If you're too busy in that moment to teach him about something, offer to teach him at a later time. Don't say you'll teach him later because he thinks that means you won't or that you don't want to and are just being nice. Give him a time where you think you'll be able to explain what he wants to know," Hunk offered before getting to another major problem. "The other big thing is that when he makes a mistake, like messes something up in training or whatever, take him aside and explain what he did wrong, find out if there was a reason behind it or if he genuinely didn't know what to do and offer solutions so he can do better next time. Don't just yell at him for getting it wrong and not offer a way for him to get better." Keith and Allura were the ones to squirm in their seats this time. Shiro also felt guilty. He had done that once or twice when he was completely stressed out and exhausted.

Hunk looked at their faces and realised there was something he should probably make clear now. "Guys, I'm not telling you this to make you feel guilty or to make you treat Lance like he's made of glass. I'm telling you this because Lance won't. He'll wave of your comments about his flirting or his intelligence. He'll be the first one to crack a joke at his expense. He'll act like the things you say don't affect him and when you apologise for hurting him, he'll laugh and tell you not to worry about it. He'll ignore the fact that you'll tell any of us what we did right or where we can improve but you don't do the same for him. He'll keep thinking that in order for us to want him around, he needs to be willing to help out with everything, even at the expense of his own health." Shiro saw where he's going with this and continued the thought.

"But we need to change. We need to include him in stuff, to make sure he is alright, to listen to him and help him. We need to start treating him like we treat each other. Like the irreplaceable person he is and not like the stand-in or temporary member he thinks he is," Shiro told them and Hunk nodded. "Keep acting the way you do around him but, like Hunk says, every now and then, ask if he's alright. Make sure he knows he's doing good. Help him improve where he needs too. What we need to do is treat him like he treats us," Shiro realised and Hunk grins as he sees the others getting it.

"Exactly," he said and felt his chest swell until he thought it would burst with the love, pride and happiness he's feeling in this moment. He could feel Yellow purring in the back of his mind and, judging from the looks on the other Paladins faces, he assumed their Lions were doing the same thing.

* * *

Lance woke up feeling better than he had in a long time. He felt Blue in his mind, wrapping him in her love and relief he was okay and he felt the other Lions but their presence wasn't as strong as it usually was. Lance panicked a little; his brain immediately concluding that he'd done something to annoy them but Blue quickly stopped that.

 _"No, my cub. I asked them to be quieter so you weren't overwhelmed as soon as you woke up. You've been sleeping for quite a while and they were growing concerned,"_ Blue told him and the sick twisting of his stomach eased considerably.

"Oh. Thanks, Blue. How long was I out?" He asked, sitting up in his bed. He spotted a bowl of food goo sitting on his bedside table and mentally blessed Hunk. He felt Yellow warm up at that and grinned as he started eating the green goop.

 _"You slept for nearly a quintet."_ Lance spluttered.

"A whole day?!" He asked and felt Blue's hum of affirmation. No wonder he felt good. He hadn't slept well for a long time and apparently all it took was getting nearly blown up, again, and his other assortment of injuries for him to catch up on sleep. Finishing his food goo, he headed for his bathroom, showered and went through his morning routine. Finally, he changed out of his comfy pj's and into his day clothes before grabbing the empty bowl and headed for the kitchens. The other Lions were now back in his mind at their usual levels, once he'd convinced Blue that he was fine and could handle it. Unsurprisingly, Hunk was in the kitchen though he did have Pidge in there as well. "Hunkalicious! Gremlin!" He greeted as soon as he walked through the door. He was immediately swept up in a massive hug.

"You're awake! How are you feeling? Did you eat the food goo? Are you still hungry?" Hunk asked, barely pausing between breaths. Lance laughed as he wiggled his way loose enough so he could put the bowl on the bench.

"I am. I'm good. Yes, I did and no, I'm not," he answered with a laugh as Hunk continued to cling to him. He felt a sharp punch to his shoulder and looked down to see Pidge scowling at him.

"Don't scare us like that, you idiot," she berated him before slipping between Hunk and himself and wrapping her wiry arms around his middle. He moved one arms from around Hunk's neck to wrap around her and hug her tight.

"I'm sorry, you guys. I didn't mean to scare you. Either of you," he told them and got a tighter hug from each in response.

"We know it wasn't your fault. I'm just so glad the Lions went after you when they did," Hunk said and Lance felt Pidge nodding against his gut. "Speaking of which, Blue had better return the favour if we ever get caught like that," Hunk joked and Lance chuckled softly. Blue's melodious laughter rang through his head.

"She said she'll consider it," he told them and they laughed before finally releasing Lance. "Speaking of my gorgeous girl, I should go down and see her. Apparently she's been fussing, if Red is to be believed," he said, grinning as Blue and Red started arguing.

"Find Shiro before you do. He's been really worried about you," Hunk told him and Lance looked stunned.

"Why?" He was genuinely confused.

"Ah, maybe because one of his friends was in a healing pod for four days, woke for an hour or so before falling asleep for nearly an entire day?" Pidge suggested sarcastically.

"Your comment is noted though the sarcasm is entirely unnecessary," Lance pouted and Pidge raised a brow in a 'so what' expression. Lance ruffled her hair before taking a couple of steps backwards. "So where is our fearless leader?" He asked as Pidge grumbled and Hunk thought for a moment.

"He said he was going to the training room an hour ago but I'm not positive he's there. You should ask Black," Hunk suggested and Lance nodded.

"Good idea. I'll check the training room out first though," Lance said before heading back out of the room.

"Lance!" Pidge's voice had him halting and peering back. "Thank you." The sincerity in her voice had him pause.

"What for?" He asked. He couldn't remember doing anything recently. Was Pidge thanking him for going to see Shiro?

"Just for being you. The last few days have made me realise just how much you mean to me and how much you help me, even if you don't realise it so thanks, man." She smiled at him; her cheeks painted a faint pink. Lance's mouth may have dropped open.

"Yeah, man. I couldn't have lasted this long without you here. Thank you for everything and for being my _hermano_ ," Hunk said softly and, dammit, Lance was _not_ going to cry right now.

"You guys suck," Lance whined, blushing furiously, as his eyes blurred and Hunk chuckled a little.

"We know. Go find Shiro," he ordered gently and Lance nodded before heading for the training room, wiping his eyes furiously.

 _"My pilot, are you alright?"_ Blue asked and Lance chuckled a little wetly.

"Yeah. Green and Yellow's pilots just said some really nice things," he told her and felt Yellow and Green's presence a little more.

 _"My pilot speaks the truth, young blue,"_ Yellow rumbled and that didn't really help with his whole 'trying not to cry because someone said something nice and meant it' thing he had going.

 _"My human was also telling the truth. She really does love you. She just forgets to say so,"_ Green told him and, fuck, they were certainly on a mission to make this no crying thing a lot harder.

"Thanks, guys," he whispered to them, leaning his back against the wall so he could collect himself again.

* * *

When he felt like he wouldn't burst into tears, he continued on his trek to the training room. As he expected, Shiro was there and giving the gladiators he was up against one hell of a good fight. Unfortunately, his opening the door startled Shiro which meant one of the bots got a good hit in, sending the Black Paladin across the room. Lance winced and rushed over, yelling for the simulation to end as he reached Shiro's side. "You okay?" He asked, kneeling next to the man, taking in his slightly glazed eyes.

"Lance, look out!" Shiro's eyes were trying to focus on something behind him and Lance looked around to see the gladiators still operational and coming for him. He threw himself backwards, dodging one strike and rolling away from the second. Unless the castle was glitching again, something he doubted, this meant that Shiro was an idiot.

"Shiro! Shut them down!" He yelled at the woozy Black Paladin, anger tinging his voice. He was weapon-less right now and was not appreciating the unexpected training. A gladiator's staff got too close for comfort. "Blue!" He shouted for his Lion and felt her answer immediately. Feeling her power flood through him, he got close to the gladiator, pressed a palm to its chest and sent a spike of ice through it, causing its chest to explode a little. The second gladiator was taken down in a similar fashion to the Galra.

"End simulation!" Lance heard the system shut down and carefully, Blue retracted her magic from him. He rounded on Shiro, who already looked worried and sheepish, before pointing a finger at him.

"You moron! You know setting the training room to only listen to you is against the rules! Rules _you_ enforced! For this exact reason!" Lance scolded, stalking closer to Shiro so he could poke him in the chest. "Black, tell your Paladin he's an idiot. Maybe he'll listen to you," he said, throwing his arms up in exasperation and felt Black's amusement as she did as she was asked.

"Hey! I'm sorry! Don't ask Black to gang up on - are you alright?" Shiro's whole attitude changed from apologetic to concerned as he grabbed one of Lance's hands and unfurled his fingers. Red blood was seeping out of three now-stinging cuts and Lance looked at them in confusion before glancing to the floor and following the blood trail to where the first gladiator had been downed.

"Oh. The metal from its chest must've cut me," Lance said, trying to pull his hand from Shiro's grasp to have a better look. Shiro didn't let him. "Uh, whatcha doing, buddy? Can I have my hand back?" He asked before yelping as Shiro's grip changed to his wrist so he could now tow him to the door. "Where are we going?" He asked, trying to keep up with Shiro's furious pace.

"Med bay," he answered; guilt laced in his voice.

"You do know there's a first aid kit in here, right?" Lance asked and Shiro stopped, causing Lance to nearly bump into him. "I put one in here since a certain Red Paladin keeps getting his stupid self hurt," Lance told him, pointing to the small, green box sitting innocently in the corner. Shiro led him over there and made him sit down as he rifled through its contents. Lance watched, keeping his hand curled up to his chest. The cuts were shallow and weren't bleeding badly. "I can do this myself; you know," Lance told him and was stunned at the look Shiro gave him.

"I know. But you don't have to. This was my fault," Shiro said as he sat on his right, gently grasping his hand and placing it on his lap.

"It's okay, Shiro. It wasn't-" Lance began but Shiro shook his head.

"No, it was my fault and we're lucky this was your only injury. There's a reason I banned everyone from making it so the simulation only ended when the person who started asked and this was why. I'm sorry you got hurt because of my stupidity," he said, cleaning the blood off of Lance's hand and disinfecting the cuts. "That was some quick thinking with the ice, though. Good job," he praised, looking up at Lance and nudging his shoulder while smiling at him.

"O-oh. Thanks, Shiro," Lance stuttered, shocked at the praise, cheeks tinting as he averted his gaze. Shiro felt a pang of sadness go through. Hunk really wasn't kidding about how little Lance got praised directly. "Um, how's your head? You took a pretty good hit from the gladiator," Lance asked, trying to sound like the praise didn't affect him so much.

"I'm okay. Honestly, I think I was more stunned by the fact it got me than the actual hit." He finished working on Lance's hand, wrapping it up with a bandage so he wouldn't get the cuts dirty before they healed. He hopped up and offered his hand to Lance before hauling the Blue Paladin to his feet and wrapping him in a tight hug. Lance froze for a moment before returning the hug just as tightly. "I'm glad you're okay. Things weren't the same around here without you. Don't scare us like that again," Shiro whispered into his hair, subconsciously tightening his grip. Lance buried his face into the crook between Shiro's shoulder and neck and they clung to each other until Blue reminded him he'd promised to see her. He huffed out some laughter before pushing away from Shiro, who let him move back, a curious gleam in his eye.

"Blue's just getting impatient," he told him and Shiro grinned.

"Wouldn't want to keep her waiting," he said before looking around the training room. "Besides, I should get this cleaned up," he said, eyeing up the bloodstains.

"I can-" Lance started to offer but Shiro shook his head.

"No, I've got it. Thanks for offering but this was my mess. Besides, I think Blue might eat me if I kept you any longer," Shiro told him and Lance laughed.

"She wouldn't eat you. Probably," Lance said and Shiro grinned before shooing him out of the training room.

"Go see your Lion," he ordered and Lance gave him a salute and a grin before heading towards the main hangar.

* * *

He was halfway to the main Lion hangar when he ran into, almost literally, Allura and Coran. Coran had immediately grabbed him by the shoulders to steady him before he did topple over.

"Lance, my boy! I'm so glad to see you up and about!" Coran exclaimed, pulling Lance in for a hug and releasing him again before he could even react. "What happened to your hand?" Coran asked and Allura gasped when she saw the bandages.

"Are you alright? Do you need a pod?" She asked and Lance barely had time to process the unusual levels of concern from her when his hand was grabbed and Coran started scanning in.

"I'm fine! Shiro patched me up. It's only a couple of scratches," he told them, perplexed with the behaviour from Allura still.

"What happened?" She asked, face still concerned.

"A small accident with the gladiators and my ice," he said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly with his uninjured hand.

"You were battling the gladiators so soon after waking up?" Allura gasped and Lance shook his head.

"No, Shiro was. I just accidentally spooked them and they came at me before we could shut the system down," he told them which was kinda true so he didn't feel too bad. "What were you guys doing down this way?" He asked before they could ask more questions.

"I was checking on the Lions. I felt them stir a little while ago. Coran accompanied me," Allura said and Lance immediately frowned.

"Are they okay?" He asked, already seeking assurances from the Lions themselves.

"Oh, don't worry! They're fine. I'm not sure what all the fuss was about," Allura told him, sighing, before straightening up and smiling gently at him. "But I am so relieved to see you up and about. I think we were all getting concerned you'd slept so long," she told him, looking very much relieved.

"I have to say I'm most joyed you're awake! I missed having you around to trade stories with. It has been rather boring around here without you," Coran told him, grinning so happily, Lance had no choice but to grin back.

"Oh! Before I forget, Lance, we've been contacted by Tra'Crolle. Pineria has called us personally. She was most happy to hear you were well and has asked that we visit as soon as you are feeling up to it," Allura told him happily and he relaxed. He knew Allura had told him before he went back to bed that the natives of the planet had passed on the message that Pineria would be alright but to know Allura has heard from her personally was even better.

"That's awesome. Can we go soon?" He asked and Allura looked at Coran.

"As long as you are still alright tomorrow, we'll all take Blue to the planet, if she's willing," Allura offered and Lance passed the message to Blue who replied eagerly.

"Blue says she's happy to do that. She wants to see Pineria as well," he told them and Allura smiled.

"Of course she does. You and she are very much alike; kind, big-hearted and very muchly valued," she told him and he flushed yet again. Allura and Coran smiled indulgently at his reaction. "Go to your Lion. I can feel her impatience from here," Allura told him and he nodded, moving to go around them but he was suddenly pulled back by his arm and the next thing he knew, he was surrounded on two sides by the Alteans. "We are very happy to have you back," she whispered to him and Coran hummed in agreement. They let him go and almost cooed at his blush.

"Thanks, guys," he smiled shyly before racing for the hangar before he could do something to embarrass himself.

* * *

He finally reached the hangar and was nearly knocked off his feet by the various levels of purring coming from the Lions; Blue being the loudest of them all. He grinned and was about to head straight for her when he heard a yelp from somewhere near Red. The next thing he knew, a familiar mullet-sporting Paladin was sitting in front of Red, having been ejected from her cockpit, looking as perplexed as Lance felt.

"Red! What the fuck?!" He yelled, jumping up and turning to face his Lion, who had now completely shut him out. Lance had doubled over, cackling at the sight. Keith looked like a furious kitten spitting at the Red Lion. Keith had spun around at the noise and his face almost softened at the sight of Lance laughing so freely.

"I so needed that! Thanks, Red!" He gasped as he tried to breathe again, wiping tears from his eyes. He felt Red's version of a smug grin through their link. Keith glared at Red; evidently he felt it as well. "What'd you do to piss Red off so much?" He asked as he approached the two of them. He felt Blue whine in the back of his head and he sent her an apology.

"I don't know," Keith scowled, crossing his arms in front of him and glared at the Red Lion who didn't seem overly phased by it. He turned back to look at Lance, eyes falling straight to his hand. "What'd you do to yourself?" He asked, nodding to his hand.

"Oh, Shiro was training and I startled him and the bots came after me. Turns out putting a hand on their chest to send an ice spike through them makes them explode a little. Shiro patched me up," he shrugged casually. Keith looked resigned.

"How is it you're always the one who gets hurt?" He asked and Lance had a feeling it was a rhetorical question but he answered it anyway.

"Just lucky, I guess." The glare he got told him that Keith didn't appreciate the joke. Blue and the others weren't a fan either, judging from what he felt through their bonds. Whoops. "So you have no clue why Red kicked you out?" He asked and Keith shook his head. "Mind if I ask her?" He asked and both Keith and Red were shocked.

"Why are you asking me?" Keith looked really confused. Lance scuffed the floor with his shoe.

"Well, I realised on my way down here that you guys might not like me talking to your Lions all the time. I never asked before because I thought you guys could already talk to all of them," Lance shrugged. Keith's brow furrowed.

"Pretty sure I speak for all of the Lions when I say they'd kick our arses if we told you to stop talking them and I don't know if you've realised this but we can't do much to stop them from talking to you anyway," Keith told him. "Plus, there's the fact that they wanted to talk to you to start with. I know none of us would ever ask you to not talk to them." Lance was stunned and Keith rolled his eyes at him. "Why's Red angry at me?" He asked, snapping Lance out of his stupor. He glanced up at Red who told him the reason and he chuckled.

"Ah, she hasn't heard you tell Blue you're sorry for yelling at her while I was asleep in there," Lance told him and Keith looked stunned.

"Seriously? Why couldn't she just tell me that herself?!" He asked, throwing his hands up in exasperation and stomping over to stand in front of Blue, catching Lance by his uninjured hand and dragging the Blue Paladin with him. "I'm sorry for yelling at you, Blue. I know you were just looking after Lance but I- we, we were really worried about him. I know that doesn't excuse what I did but I am sorry," he told her and Lance felt Blue's demeanour towards Red's pilot change.

"Blue says you're forgiven," Lance dutifully passed along the message before turning to Red. "You can stop being salty now!" He called out and felt her amusement as she shifted slightly. Keith felt it as well and smirked before realising he was still holding Lance's hand. Lance turned to look at Keith again and noticed his rapidly growing blush.

"Hey, you alr- woah!" He squeaked as Keith used their linked hands to pull Lance into a fierce hug. Lance was shocked for two reason. One; Keith was hugging him, which was shocking enough, and, two; this was at least the fifth hug in the last varga and the last time that had happened was when his family was saying goodbye to him as he left for the Garrison. "Are you okay?" He asked, getting with the program and hugging Keith back.

"Yeah. I'm just really glad you're okay," he mumbled into Lance's shoulder.

Keith's mind went back to when Lance was in the pod and Coran had sworn Lance would be in there for a while. Shiro had ordered everyone out and, after he'd promised to stay with Lance, everyone except himself and Coran had left. Hunk had suggested they go check the Lions over and Keith tagged along without any thought. Red had opened immediately for him and Keith had almost thrown up before he'd barely stepped foot on the ramp. There was so much blood in Red, he was convinced Lance couldn't have had any left in him.

Hunk had come to see what had him frozen and he had actually thrown up, barely making it to the trash bin before heaving. He hadn't noticed the blood when he'd gone into the cockpit to get Lance out, far too focused on Lance himself. Pidge had offered to help Keith clean but he'd waved the young girl off, telling her to focus on Blue. She didn't argue, handing over her cleaning supplies before fleeing to where Blue, Black and Yellow were. It had taken vargas to get the blood out and he was still finding spots he'd missed.

"There was so much blood in Red." He felt Lance tense up in his arms. "When I saw it all, I couldn't believe you even survived. I expected Coran to tell us you hadn't; that the pod had failed, that it wasn't enough to save you. I thought that the last proper conversation we'd have was me yelling at you for Shiro crashing. The last thing you would've heard me ask you was what you were doing in Red. I realised I couldn't handle those being the last things you heard from me because it meant you'd think that I actually hated you and I don't. I really don't. I know I've never said it but I really care about you, as much as I care for Shiro. I think that if you left Voltron, if you died, it would destroy all of us. It would destroy me," Keith told him, voice fraught with emotions and it took him a moment to realise Lance had buried his face into his shoulder and what the damp patch on his shirt meant.

Keith continued holding onto Lance as he cried but he barely managed to stifle a yelp and he certainly couldn't hide his jump when Blue decided to sink down so her paws surrounded them and she was barely touching them with her nose. Keith swore he heard her making a soft, keening noise and Lance lifted his head slightly to look at her before he reached out to pet her muzzle.

"Thanks, girl," he whispered to her, feeling her love hit him with the force of a truck. He pushed himself off of Keith and scrubbed his face with his sleeve. "Sorry, I didn't mean to cry all over you." He chuckled wetly, sniffling slightly. He didn't need a mirror to know he looked an absolute mess; puffy red eyes, tear streaks down his cheeks, red nose.

"It's okay," Keith said, ducking his head down and shuffling a little before sucking up his courage and looking back at Lance. "Look, I know I'm probably the worst person on this ship to come to but if you ever need someone to talk to, or at, I'll be there. No matter the time or what we're doing. I might not be able to help much but I swear I'll do my best." Keith's eyes were sparkling with determination and conviction. Lance grabbed him back in a hug.

"Thanks, Keith," he whispered, vision blurring up again. Keith squeezed him just as tightly as before.

"Anytime, Lance," he said before pulling away and scrutinising Lance. "Will you be alright if I leave? I told Shiro I'd kick his arse in training," he said and Lance laughed.

"Good luck with that, Mullet. Watch him, though, he hurt himself earlier," Lance cautioned and Keith's eyes narrowed. "You should ask him," Lance suggested when Keith went to ask. The raven-haired pilot closed his mouth and nodded.

"I'll do that," he said, nodding his head before walking towards Blue's paws. "Oh, I don't know if you saw Hunk earlier but he said he was gonna make something special for you for dinner so don't be late," Keith told him and Lance grinned.

"Thanks, man." Lance looked up at Blue. "Do you wanna let him out or are you gonna force him to climb over you?" He asked her and Keith was actually worried when she didn't move for a long moment that he would have to climb over her but she moved her paws apart just enough for him to get through.

"Thanks, Blue. See ya at dinner, Lance!" Keith called out as he left and Lance waved at him before turning to Blue.

 _"I told you that you were treasured by everyone. Do you believe me now, my cub?"_ Blue asked as she permitted him entrance and he sat in the pilot's seat. He smiled as he felt the rest of the Lions in his mind.

"Yeah. I think I'm starting too." This time, Lance really meant it.

 **A/N - So this is the final chapter! I really hope you guys have enjoyed this story as much as I have enjoyed writing it. I was thinking of doing a separate piece about the Lions and Lance's bond to them that would be a stand alone from this story. Do you guys think you'd be interested in that? Let me know in the comments if you are and what you thought to this chapter and the whole story!**

 **Thank you to everyone who has kept with this story and left reviews. Please keep doing so! Until next time!**

 ** _hermano -_ brother**


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